Seven Tibetan Buddhist monks from Tashi Lhunpo monastery visited the Flathead Valley between March 9th and March 12th, 2003. They created a sand mandala, performed a sacred dance, called a cham, performed a candle light vigil, and gave some Buddhist teachings.

sand mandala

see the pictures

when

March 10th, 11th and 12th, 2003

where

The Central School Museum -- Turn of the Century Room
124 2nd Ave E, Kalispell, MT [map]

what it was

Of all the artistic traditions of Tantric or Tibetan Buddhism, painting with colored sand ranks as one of the most unique and exquisite.

To construct the mandala, millions of grains of sand will be painstakingly laid into place on a flat platform. In general, all mandalas have outer, inner, and secret meaning. On the outer level they represent the world in divine form. On the inner level, they represent a map by which the ordinary human mind is transformed into enlightened mind. On the secret level, the primordially perfect balance of the subtle energies of the body and the clear light dimension of mind.

When the mandala has been completed and its purpose served, the time for dismantling it has arrived. In addition to symbolizing the impermanence of things, the dismantling of the mandala symbolizes the ultimate voidness nature of phenomena ... how all things come out of nothingness and eventually return to it.

Many benefits of both a temporal and spiritual nature are produced during the mandala process, and the forces of goodness and light are strengthened.

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