MANKATO, Minn. -
It's called a Mandala Sand Painting, an ancient Buddhist practice of combining art with meditation.
Colored marble sand is placed into a tool, and the monk uses a stick to vibrate sand out the end, a few grains at a time.
Nawang Khenrab Tenzin of the Drepung Loseling Monastery says, "When we're creating the Mandala, we're not just creating the Mandala. It has to be done with meditation and chanting and reciting mantras."
This group is from a monastery in Atlanta, Georgia, and part of the much larger community of exiled Tibetan monks living in India.
They were brought in by MSU's Office of Institutional Diversity and the Black Student Union, which are sponsoring the event.
Cortez Hollis says, "It adds a sense of being, of commitment and sense of being involved here on campus. This year we're focused on harmony and that's what they're designing behind me."
It will take the monks 3 days to create the Mandala, with as many as five working at the same time for a total of 36 hours.
Then at noon on Friday they will hold a ceremony to deconstruct the painting - a metaphor for how all life ends.
Because it's not really about the work of art, it's about the work put into the art.
Tenzin says, "They have to create from their own memory. They are not referring to any other materials. They withdraw from their own hearts."
