WATCH: Monks Create Mandala for World Healing

The monks draw an outline of the mandala on the wooden platform. (Jessica Ngo)

Sand is placed using traditional metal funnels called ‘chakpur.’ (Jessica Ngo)

The monks sweep up the mandala’s colored sands during the closing ceremony (Jessica Ngo)

A group participates in creating a community mandala. (Jessica Ngo)

Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing (Jessica Ngo)

In the prelude to “Sacred Music Sacred Dance” the monks invoke creative awareness within themselves and the audience through a tapestry of instrumental and vocal sounds. (Jessica Ngo)

"Taksal" (Intense Encounters of the Third Degree) – Monks engage in a demonstration of Tibetan monastic inquiry. (Jessica Ngo)

In Tibet, the snow lion symbolizes the fearless and elegant quality of the enlightened mind. (Jessica Ngo)

"Shanak Garcham" or “Dance of the Black Hat Masters" is a wrathful-style dance for the elimination of negative energies and hindrances.

Five dancers symbolizing the ﬁve elements and ﬁve wisdoms, together with three musicians, invoke the sounds and movements of the Celestial Travelers, the mystical beings from another world whose blessings strengthen the forces of life and light. (Jessica Ngo)

To remind the world of the ephemeral nature of all things, two monks appear as “Cemetery Lords”. These are "Dharmapalas", or “Protectors of Truth,” with the message to point the mind toward authentic being. (Jessica Ngo)

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HOUSTON — Asia Society Texas Center recently welcomed the Tibetan Buddhist Monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery to Houston for the third year. In the Edward Rudge Allen III Education Center, more than 2,100 visitors observed The Mystical Arts of Tibet, where over four days the monks created a White Tara (Buddha associated with longevity and success) mandala sand painting. This ancient artistic tradition of Tantric Buddhism began with an opening ceremony of chanting, music, and mantras to call upon the forces of goodness. The monks outlined the mandala before filling it in with millions of grains of colored sand using traditional metal funnels called chakpur. The audience had the chance to contribute to a separate Texas-themed community mandala on Saturday. On the final day, in a closing ceremony, the monks swept up the mandala’s colored sands, a metaphor for the impermanence of life. The sand was distributed to the audience.

The monks presented a sold-out performance of Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing in The Brown Foundation Performing Arts Theater. In an abbreviated version of a Tibetan spiritual festival, the performers dressed in traditional costumes to present dances and demonstrated the monastery’s distinct style of philosophical debate. The performance also included the multiphonic chanting known as zokkay (complete chord) the monks are world-famous for.

WATCH: Monks Create Mandala for World Healing

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