The Tibetan Monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery will be at the Memorial Union today through Friday, performing the sacred Buddhist tradition of creating and destroying the mandala.
A mandala, a colorful sand painting, is made during crises as a spiritual symbol of world harmony.
\[The mandala] talks about the impermanence of everything in life and the cycle of birth, growth, aging, death and rebirth, and it's really beautiful,"" said Esty Dinur, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Union Theater.
The monks will create the Mandala of Akshobhya Buddha, which represents the enlightened form of the mind.
""For a culture that's been so suppressed ... it's especially important now to re-envision the world,"" said John Dunne, assistant professor in languages and cultures of Asia.
The monks will finish the mandala Friday and close the ceremony at noon by pouring the sand into a body of water. This part of the ritual emphasizes nothing is permanent, according to Dinur.
""[This ritual] is a way to share the prayers and the blessings with the whole world,"" said Lobsang Tenzin, geshe of the Tibetan Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery.
Friday night at 8 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater, the monks will perform chants and sacred ritual dances, which are imitated from larger Tibetan ceremonies.
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the monks performed these mandala ceremonies as a form of healing in New York and Washington, D.C.
Since then, Tenzin said, the Dalai Llama requested they perform rituals to promote healing amidst an increasing trend of world violence.
The purpose of the mandala is to re-imagine the world as one of complete bliss, Dunne said.
As well as holding spiritual importance for the community, the event is also politically important.
""On one level, it is witnessing a [culture] that might disappear soon because it is one of the highly endangered cultures now because of the Chinese invasion of Tibet and the systematic [effort] to destroy it,"" Tenzin said.
