Now imagine taking the product of your labors and throwing it in a river.

That's exactly what 11 Tibetan monks from the Drepung Gomang Monastery will do after finishing their work at the Upaya Center for Wellbeing in Oakland. In a bright, sunlit room, the monks are constructing a healing, sand mandala, which consists of millions of grains of colored sand, painstakingly lain in an intricate design.

Sand mandalas, or sand painting, is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist art form that originated in India. Among the Tibetan arts, painting with colored sand ranks as one of the most unique and exquisite.

"In Tibetan Buddhism, a mandala is an imaginary palace that is contemplated during meditation," information on the monastery's Web site reads. "Each object in the palace has a significance representing some aspect of wisdom or reminding the meditator of some guiding principal."

It is also very difficult to complete.

First, the monks consecrate the site where the mandala will be constructed with chants and devotional incantations. Then the lines of the design are carefully laid down with compasses and straight-edge rulers. And finally the monks begin the meticulous task of filling the design with finely ground, brightly dyed sands.

Typically four monks work on the mandala at once. They scoop the colored sand grains in one end of a metal tube known as a chakpur. The chakpur is ribbed and tapered to a fine point. Then from a sitting position on the floor, the monk leans forward until his face is just inches from the intricate pattern and he teases the sand out of the tapered end of the chakpur by sliding another metal tube along the chakpur's raised ribs.

The completed mandala is about five feet in diameter and stunningly colorful. The mandala is consecrated through prayer and then, as a symbol of the impermanence of all that exists, the intricate design is swept into oblivion. Half of the sand is given to those in attendance as a blessing and the rest is dispersed into a river or creek, so the blessing can be carried throughout the world.

"We do five different mandalas," said Tenzin Gyalpo, one of the monks working on the project. "This one is for a general healing in the environment."

For more information about the Tibetan Buddhist mandalas visit the Drepung Gomang's Web site at www.gomang.org.

Sand mandalas, or sand painting, is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist art form. Among the Tibetan arts, painting with colored sand ranks as one of the most unique.

The Oakland Tribune: Cityside
Leanne McLaughlin, Managing Editor
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