A depiction of patience

MONTROSE  — With a disciplined hand and trained concentration, Tibetan Monk Thinley creates a vibrant work of art one grain of sand at a time.

The Tibetan sand mandala being constructed at the Ute Indian Museum symbolizes the “deity” of wisdom and peace, said Geshe Phuntsok, spiritual director of the Asanga Institute in Montrose. For the next 11 days, Thinley, with assistance from Phuntsok, will create a sand mandala designed to show others a different culture and “tell the message of Buddhism,” Phuntsok said. “We get peace from concentration.”

In Tibetan, this art is called dul-tson-kyil-khor, which means “mandala of colored powders,” according to www.mysticalartsoftibet.org.

In the back room of the museum, a table sits with small bowls of colored sand — bright blue, pink, yellow, orange — brought from India. Using a small metal funnel called a chakpur, Thinley slowly fills in the lines he had drawn out earlier. Thinley runs a metal rod across the chakpur’s grated surface, making a sound similar to a rattlesnake’s attack, and then small grains of sand flow like liquid, bringing life to the geometric ancient spiritual symbol.

Phuntsok said Thinley studied for a year in the proper techniques of making a sand mandala. Each design has a meaning and each drawing has to be memorized. Phuntsok said the ancient art of creating the mandala takes patience and concentration from the artist, who, when the work is completed, is expected to have gained an understanding of the deity.

The completed design, said Phuntsok, is a tool for re-consecrating the earth and all that lives in it. The symbol in the middle is called “wajra,” he said. It is the mind’s house and a map by which the ordinary human mind is transformed. The outer level represents the world in its divine form, he said.

And just like life, when the mandala is completed it will then be destroyed, “symbolizing life as impermanent,” Phuntsok said. “The color of all life, then it goes away.”

It’s tradition to destroy the work of art and the sand is returned to the river.

Thinley and Phuntsok will be constructing the mandala at the museum, Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., until May 8. The public is welcome to come and view the work of the visiting monks.

Contact Kati O’Hare via e-mail at katio@montrosepress.com