Tibetan monks from the Tashi Lhunpo monastery, seat of the Panchen Lama, perform the ritual destruction of a sand mandala. A tradition of Tantric Buddhism, a sand mandala is a painting process involving millions of grains of sand which are painstakingly laid in place using hollow pipes called chak-purs, through which the sand is vibrated into the design. When the mandala is finally completed it is ritually dismantled during a colourful ceremony to symbolise the impermanence of all that exists.
For more information see the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery UK site, Asia House, where the sand mandala ceremony was performed, and a BBC feature on sand mandalas. For more photographs visit www.pbase.com.
