Reality built on sand

Buddhist monk Geshe Lobsang Dhonye begins the three-week process of creating a sand mandala in the University of Otago Library yesterday.

Dhargyey Buddhist Centre co-director Jane Gillespie said he would spend four hours each day creating the mandala.

"He will painstakingly tap coloured crushed marble sand into the form of the mandala," she said.

"Everything in it means something, so there’s a huge amount of detail, but this one is a wisdom mandala."

The circle shape represented a world in harmony, and the impermanence of reality was also one of the themes behind the creation.

Next Monday, a talk would be held at the mandala called "Architecture of Enlightenment: the Creation and Dissolution of a Sand Mandala".

On September 12, a dissolution ceremony would take place in which the mandala would be swept up and the sand dispersed in the sea.