Over five days this spring, with hundreds looking over their shoulders and watching live on the web, 12 Tibetan monks from the Gaden Jangtse Monastery in India worked grain-by-grain to craft the colorful “Sand Mandala of Wisdom” in the Nott Memorial.
The mandala was the centerpiece of the monk's weeklong visit that also included the construction of a butter sculpture, talks on politics in Tibet, a philosophical debate, meditation lessons and a multi-tonal chanting concert.
Their visit ended with the dismantling of the mandala, a colorful closing ceremony with chanting, music, elaborate costumes and a walk to Union's boathouse pier on the Mohawk River, where they released the sand.
The original Gaden Jangtse Monastery was established in 1409, and at one point was India's second largest monastery with 7,000 monks. Little of the original monastery remains after the 1959 Communist invasion of Tibet. The monastery was re-established in South India, and now serves about 3,000 monks.
The monks' visit to Union was funded through a Freeman Foundation grant supporting the East Asian Studies program.