Welcoming the Drepung Loseling Phukhang Monastery monks to perform a sand mandala is the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California.
The ceremony concludes on September 9, 2012 where the sand mandala is blessed by the monks, some sand of which is distributed to some attendees and the rest dumped into the ocean where, according to Buddhist spiritual understanding, it blesses all living beings in its vicinity.
See Sand Mandala at Pacific Asia Museum at Pasadena Playhouse District’s Blog.
Pasadena, CA. The Pacific Asia Museum is welcoming the Buddhists monks from Drepung Loseling Phukhang Khangsten to perform their religious sand mandala ceremony from September 5-9, 2012.
The Drepund Loseling Phukhang Khangsten Monastery used to be home to 12,000 monks. It is a sub-monastery of the Drepung Loseling Monastery now.
The mandala ceremony includes chanted mantras and music. The “artwork” is a depiction of a deity or deities or, god or gods. In blessing or consecrating the artwork to this god or gods and then releasing the “blessed” sand upon the mandala’s deconstruction, it is intended that the essence of this god or gods will accompany the sand and release its essence in the environment in which it is located.
They also will release some of the “consecrated” sand into the moving water where all living beings worldwide will be “blessed”.
Source www.pacificasiamuseum.org