Updated 01/14/2013 12:20 PM
Visiting Tibetan monks disassemble art as a practice in patience
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
It was standing room only at the Blanton Museum in downtown Austin Sunday as thousands gathered to be a part of an exhibition of Tibetan art called "Into the Sacred City."
Monks painstakingly created an art piece, called a Mandala, out of grains of sand. The elaborate project depicts a sacred idealized universe.
The monks who create the art dedicate their lives to the study of philosophy, and after five days dedicated to creating the piece in Austin, the process sparked the interest they hoped.
“It is hard to imagine the time and effort that they put into making this art,” 10-year-old spectator Luke Lozano said.
Mandalas are also created as a practice of meditation.
“I think the most amazing thing is they spent so much time making it, and then at the end they are going to dissemble it, and that just shows the pertinence of life,” Austinite Madeline Vu said.
After five days of work, the finished product was only on display for 30 minutes. The sand was then placed into hundreds of bags and given to the crowd as a memento.
“When beautiful things happen, people are attracted to that,” spectator Amelia Torres said.
The monks have traveled the U.S. and will continue their tour in Wyoming next.
Sebastian Robertson snapped the photos in the gallery below.
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.