Mandalas and sand paintings both portray symbolic and beautiful features in Tibetan Buddhism and Navajo sacred art Mandalas and sand paintings both portray symbolic and beautiful features in Tibetan Buddhism and Navajo sacred art. Even though these two cultures are divided by hundreds of miles of land and water, there are still many similarities found between these two fascinating diagrams.
Mandalas are prevalent in Tibetan Buddhist temples.
They are an image of the cosmos represented by an arrangement of circular shapes containing diagrams or images. Not only is the finished product of the mandala important, but also so is the process of creating the mandala. The initiate is to memorize the mandala during the course of initiation. Similar to mandalas, sand paintings are often used during initiation rituals such as puberty, or initiation to a higher status such as to a Shaman. The initiate must spend much time, maybe years, on memorizing the image and concentrating on not making any mistakes while replicating the image with the sand.