Opening Ceremony

The monks begin the Mandala sand painting with a ceremony of chants, music and mantra recitation for blessing the site to make it conducive for creating the mandala.

Drawing of the Lines

After the opening ceremony, the monks start drawing the line design for the mandala. This is very exacting work based on sacred geometry as presented in the ancient scriptures.

In ancient times in Tibet, sand ground from brightly colored stone was often used for making the Mandalas. Today, white stones are ground and dyed with opaque water colors to produce the bright tones found in the sand paintings. The basic colors are white, black, blue, red, yellow, and green. Each of the basic colors : blue, red, yellow and green have three shades- dark, medium, and light - a total of fourteen colors.

Mandala construction

Throughout its creation, the monks pour mlillions of grains of sand from traditional metal funnels called chakpur. The finished MJandala is approximately five feet by five feet in size, and takes three to five days.

Mandala Completion

The monks conclude their creation of the Sand Mandala with a consecration ceremony to request the continuos blessings of the invoked deities of the Mandala.