page_title: Sandpainting
section_title: Tibetan sandpainting
hierarchical_section_title: Sandpainting / History / Tibetan sandpainting
caption_attribution_description: Deuxième jour de la réalisation d'un mandala de sable "Pour la paix dans le monde", par trois lamas du temple des Mille Bouddhas, à la Tour de la Liberté de Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, les 11, 12 et 13 avril 2008
context_page_description: Sandpainting is the art of pouring coloured sands, and powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, or pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto a surface to make a fixed, or unfixed sand painting. Unfixed sand paintings have a long established cultural history in numerous social groupings around the globe, and are often temporary, ritual paintings prepared for religious or healing ceremonies. It is also referred to as drypainting.
  Drypainting is practised by Native Americans in the Southwestern United States, by Tibetan and Buddhist monks, as well as Indigenous Australians, and also by Latin Americans on certain Christian holy days.
context_section_description: Tibetan Buddhist sand paintings usually composed mandalas. In Tibetan, it is called dul-tson-kyil-khor (mandala of coloured powders).
  The sand is carefully placed on a large, flat table.  The construction process takes several days, and the mandala is destroyed shortly after its completion.  This is done as a teaching tool and metaphor for the "impermanence" (Pali: anicca) of all contingent and compounded phenomena (Sanskrit: Pratītya-samutpāda).
  The mandala sand-painting process begins with an opening ceremony, during which the lamas, or Tibetan priests, consecrate the site and call forth the forces of goodness.  They chant, declare intention, mudra, asana, pranayama, do visualisations, play music, recite mantras, etc.
  On the first day, the lamas begin by drawing an outline of the mandala to be painted on a wooden platform.  The following days see the laying of the coloured sands, which is effected by pouring the sand from traditional metal funnels called chak-pur. Each monk holds a chak-pur in one hand, while running a metal rod on its serrated surface; the vibration causes the sands to flow like liquid.
  Formed of traditional prescribed iconography that includes geometric shapes and a multitude of ancient spiritual symbols (e.g.: Ashtamangala and divine attributes of yidam), seed syllables, mantra, the sand-painted mandala is used as a tool or instrument for innumerable purposes.  A primary purpose is to reconsecrate the earth and its inhabitants.
  When the meditation is complete, the sand painting is ceremoniously destroyed using a Vajra and the sand is then gathered and taken to a body of water for offering.
caption: Mandala Sable 2008-05 showing the use of Chak-pur
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