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The Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta sent 10 monks to create a Sand Mandala Project in the Rapaport Atriun at Blanton Museum of Art on Texas University, at Austin’s campus. This is to be the culminating event of the exhibit of “Into the Sacred City: Tibetan Buddhist Deities from the Theos Bernard Collection.”
The display included eight rare Tibetan works, which have never been exhibited publicly before, from the University of California, Berkley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA). There are five mandalas and three thangkas from the 15th to 20th centuries exploring the art and religion of Tibet.
Today marked the end to the exhibit as well as the work of the monks on the Sand Mandala Project as they performed the dissolution ceremony showing the impermanence of all that exists. Upon its conclusion, half of the sand was given out to those in attendance, followed by a procession to Waller Creek at about 3:30 pm where the other half of the sand mandala was dispersed in the water. The mandala was created for the healing of living beings and the environment.