Venerable Lobsang Tendar is a teacher of Sacred Tibetan Buddhist Art and offers Mandala Workshops that provide instruction in how to create a Mandala in the Gyuto tradition. Please see the Workshops page for information on current and ongoing classes.
Sand Mandalas are a particularly sacred aspect of the Mandala art-form and are often created specifically for auspicious occasions like festivals. Usually a Sand Mandala will have four monks working on it at any given time (one per side), with monks working in alternating teams of four on very large mandalas.
With only Tendar to work on the Guhyasamaja Mandala at Docklands, the task was appropriately scaled down to allow it to reach a level of completion within the available time.
To give an idea of the level of dedication involved in creating a Sand Mandala ... even the coloured sands were prepared by Tendar for this mandala. The specially selected marble (chosen for its sparkle) was pounded and crushed down to the required size and consistancy before carefully measured amounts of vegetable dyes were added to achieve the very specific colour palette required.
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