Thupten Chosang will spend several hours next week creating an intricate pattern with colored grains of sand. Then he’ll help sweep it away.
“It shows the circle of life,” said Chosang, a 30-year-old Tibetan monk who will fashion a mandala with fellow monks at Millsaps College in Jackson. “Death is the beginning of life and birth is the beginning of death. When we finish mandalas, we dismantle them. It shows the impermanent nature of life.”
As part of a tour called “The Mystical Arts of Tibet,” Chosang and nine other Tibetan monks will visit Jackson to share the ancient ritual of sand painting. The tour aims to promote peace while raising awareness of the Tibetan refugee community in India.
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The creation and dismantling of the mandalas is certainly one of the most striking artistic and spiritual events within Buddhism.
Nothing remains the same for two consecutive moments.
Not even for one moment. The act of observing changes both the observed and the observer.