Margaret BauerCity Museum
701 N. 15th St. (off of Wash Ave.)
Opening ceremony: Thursday, April 22 at 9 AM
Viewing: all weekend during City Museum hours
Closing ceremony: Tuesday, April 27 at 5 PM
The use of sand as an art medium stretches far beyond those little Zen rock gardens one might find sitting on an office desk. This weekend the Drepung Gomang Monastery will construct a Medicine Buddha Sand Mandala at the City Museum. A sand mandala is a circular pattern (“mandala” is Sanskrit for “circle”) representing the universe and its energy and the cycle of life and death. It has multiple outer, inner and secret meanings. The outer meaning reflects the world in its divine form. The inner meaning traces the progress of an ordinary human mind to an enlightened one. And the secret meaning, well, that will be left for those interested to search for themselves. Each grain of sand symbolizes every being in the universe as part of one entire interconnected system. Every line or curve signifies the patterns and relationships of each being (grain) to the next. The formation of the sand mandala serves as a purification of all of these meanings and connections.
Tibetan art seeks not to compete with others in originality and self-expression, but to encourage precise execution and awareness of the process at hand. The mandala consists of fourteen different colors of sand poured onto a small circular area (about five feet wide). Working from the center outward, lines are drawn with precise geometry to form a pattern that is later filled with sand. The monks are not allowed to touch the sand, so each monk tediously pours the sand through a metal funnel called a chakpur, with an opening about the size of a pencil tip. Every mandala is unique. A pattern recalled from memory may serve as a template, but every creation differs from the next. The product of this five day meditation is a beautiful array of colors and lines akin to, but far more impressive than, a kaleidoscope.
The opening ceremony occurs on Thursday morning at 9AM, during which the monks consecrate the site for their project. Chanting mantras and playing flutes, drums and cymbals, no song may be repeated throughout the ritual. The finished product will be open to see on Monday and Tuesday, and the closing ceremony will occur on Tuesday night at 5PM. During this, the monks will sweep away the mandala, symbolizing the impermanence of all that exists in the world. The monks will distribute some of the sand to the spectators as blessings of good health. The monks will then walk the remainder of the sand down to the Mississippi River and pour it into the water to spread its healing forces to the rest of the world. The event offers a cultural, spiritual and artistic experience far beyond the everyday Frisbee throwing in the quad or late night fights at Bear’s Den. Look for your grain of sand in the mandala on the third floor of the City Museum off of 15th and Washington Avenue.