ART REVIEW : The Grains of Truth in a Buddhist Sand Painting

The Kalachakra Wheel of Time is a sacred sand painting that Tibetan Buddist monks have been making since 600 BC. First produced by the Buddha himself as part of a religious teaching known as the Kalachakra Tantra, the Wheel of Time contains 722 deities, each of which is represented by a specific visual symbol. Traditionally executed by two shifts of 16 monks working over four days, this magnificent and intricate artwork is simply swept away upon completion. The monks believe the best way to preserve its meaning and power is to dismantle it.

Needless to say, you won’t find a sand mandala in the permanent collection of any local museum because the idea of preservation is at odds with the art form. To see a sand mandala is a rare privilege; to see Tibetan monks actually making one is another experience altogether. Angelenos can do both at the Museum of Natural History, where four monks from the Dalai Lama’s Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, India, will be at work on the Wheel of Time through Aug. 17.

Presented by the Samaya Foundation in conjunction with the Dalai Lama’s visit to Los Angeles last month (he came to offer the Kalachakra teachings), the Wheel of Time is a vehicle of peace and enlightenment believed to instill tranquillity in the hearts of those who view it. If the monks who have been at work at the museum since July 6 are any evidence of the mandala’s power, it inarguably bequeaths tranquillity on those it touches.

Beginning their day’s work with half an hour of chanted prayer, the monks are in a state of meditation as they start work on the mandala and quite beautiful to watch. Serene and endlessly patient in their labors, they exude a quiet contentment rarely seen in the frenzied Western world.

“Do you enjoy this work?” one monk is asked.

“Oh yes, very much,” he answers beaming, as attempts to teach an 11-year-old boy how to handle sand painting tools (the sand painting exhibition also includes how-to demonstrations and related videotapes of the Dalai Lama).

When it first appeared in India in 600 BC, sand painting was done using the fingers, but the clever Tibetans improved on that technique when they took up the art form in the 11th Century. Devising metal funnels called chakpus, which are gently rasped with a second funnel to tap out colored sand, Tibetan monks weave their richly colored tapestry out of sand that is, in fact, crushed stone dyed with opaque water-based pigment.

The monks begin by painting the central image of Kalachakra (a manifestation of the Buddha) and his consort Vishvamat, then develop the image outward. They sit at their work when the mandala is in its early stages, then stand as it nears completion. Though the idea of artistic ego is distinctly at odds with Tibetan Buddhism, the Wheel of Time varies from one to the next, and there is room within this highly revered composition for subtle passages of personal expression.

Seven feet across in its finished form, the mandala is structured as a series of concentric circles surrounding a complex network of symbols leading to a many chambered palace. The circles protect the palace and represent wisdom, space, wind, fire, water and earth, while the innermost circle features a dozen gateways (symbolizing body, speech and mind) that lead deeper into the palace. Mind is the main passageway to the center of the palace, where the Buddha sits on a lotus blossom in a state of perpetual bliss.

This is only the second time this sacred art form has been seen in the United States (the Wheel of Time was completed in New York last summer). The closing ritual at the museum begins at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday and will commence with prayers requesting the deities to return to their celestial abode. The symbolic representations of the deities are then plucked from the mandala by the monks who place them in an urn.

The energy of the mandala is then “cut” and the remaining sand, believed to have a special power, is swept into an urn which will be taken to the Santa Monica Bay Sand and Sea Club where it will be poured into the ocean for the benefit of marine life. The dismantling of the mandala is considered an exercise in non-attachment and letting go of the mind self.

Who among us can’t use a little of that?