Tibetan Mandala

There is one of the most unique and exquisite religious arts in Tibetan Buddhism.
At large Dharma events, the lamas in the monastery depict the bizarre world of Buddha with millions of grains of sand, a process that can last for days or even months. However, the Lamas have worked hard to create a beautiful three-dimensional picture, which has not been used to show off its beauty to the world. The world depicted in sand will be swept away without hesitation, in an instant to vanish ... The fine sand will be loaded into the bottle and dumped into the river.


The sand painting of the altar city is built of special fine sand. Because sand is the most basic element of building the world, Shashi is difficult to build and easy to destroy, beautiful and fragile, in the blink of an instant, the most concrete to reveal the world  "illusory impermanence " of the empty nature. The white sand used is made by hand grinding special stones, including gold, turquoise, agate and other precious metals and ores, and then dyed, only to become the basic material of Shashi. There are white, black, blue, red, yellow, green six colors, in addition to white black, the four colors are divided into deep, medium and light three levels, a total can be blended into 14 colors. Generally speaking, blue, yellow, red, green, white five basic colors, corresponding to the five-party Buddha and five wisdom.


Draw the altar city is a difficult and meticulous process, lamas to wear a mask, pre-grinding into small granular sand in a special conical container, through or light or heavy banging to control the flow, the sand leaking on the template, carefully stacked, sketched, and to concentrate, meticulous, slightly careless, will be undone, depending on the size.


It takes several days to several months to wait. From an artistic point of view, the whole picture is rigorous in structure and rich in color, and the meaning of religion is well put into place with the help of the layered and heavy media of sand grains. Whether it is sitting in the middle of the Buddha, or around the Buddha around the appearance of the different creatures, or around the world around that circle of ethereal qi, are just right to have their own charm, and harmonious composition of the world of perfection.


What is even more breathtaking is that this unique creative technique limits the possibility of too much change, so the whole picture must be one go, just as monks write the familiar worldview of their own brains. From the point of view of behavior, the monks ' own creative process also fits in with the intention of the picture. The long creation, the short joy after success, then is the destruction without hesitation. When this sandy altar city is finished and after the law meeting. It is dispersed from the outer layers of sand to the inner layer, representing all the old death and return to its heart at the beginning of the situation. In addition, it expresses the impermanence and emptiness of the world