Tibetan Sand Mandala
During their UK tour From the Roof of the World, Tibetan monks from the Tashu Lhunpo monastery will be staying in Sibford over the weekend of 19 – 20 October. The highlight of their visit will be the Saturday evening performance, evoking the atmosphere of sacred Tibet from the mesmerising chant of Buddhist texts to swirling costumed masked dances accompanied by ancient musical instruments.
They will begin their stay here with a visit to the Primary School on Friday 18th and later that day they will begin the construction of a Sand Mandala in the small Village Hall, in a Dedication Ceremony at 4.30pm.
A sand mandala is an intricate picture, made entirely of grains of coloured sand, used in the Tantric tradition of Tibetan Buddhism as an aid to meditation as part of an initiation.
The monks will be working on the mandala through the weekend. Once it is complete, and the final grain of sand has been put into position, at 10.45am on Sunday morning the mandala is blessed, and then destroyed in a moving ceremony. After a short procession to the Sib, the grains of sand are poured away into running water,
You are welcome to attend either mandala ceremony and to come and watch the monks making the mandala on Saturday morning or afternoon – there is no charge.
There is more information about the whole weekend at https://thesibfords.uk/tlm