Wisdom and Compassion in Vivid Colour: The Creation and Destruction of a Sand Mandala

Over the course of three weeks during March and April 2019, Geshe Nyima and Geshe Lobsang Dhonyoe, Buddhist monks from the Dunedin Dhargyey Centre, created a sacred Tibetan sand mandala, grain by grain. Every day the monks painstakingly worked to construct a perfect representation of the cosmos using vividly-coloured crushed marble sand.

The monks were formally welcomed to the space by tangata whenua with a traditional Māori whakatau on the Plaza at Dunedin City Library. The monks then moved to consecrate the base on which the mandala was to be constructed, before beginning work on the creation.

Daily visitors to the Library were able to watch the cosmos appearing before their eyes to the gentle tap-tapping of the monks' tools as they sprinkled the sands in precise patterns over the base, and each day's work on the mandala began with mantra chanting, which people were welcomed to join.

The monks also gave talks about the significance of the sand mandala and the Tibetan monks' world view, as well as cultivating the qualities of wisdom and compassion for wellbeing and the good of the world. A workshop was also run for children to make their own version of a sand mandala.

At the conclusion of the mandala, after weeks of intensive work on the creation, the sands were swept away in a traditional dissolution ceremony, where bags of the brightly-coloured sand were given away with other small gifts to those who attended.