Tibetan Buddhist Monks Construct a Sacred Sand Mandala at Allan Hancock College

SANTA MARIA SUN

CALIFORNIA---A group of Tibetan Buddhist monks has been making its way across the United States sharing cultural art forms and philosophies. Now on the Central Coast, the group—which hails from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in India—will be presenting several cultural pageants locally as well as creating an intricate sand mandala at Allan Hancock College over the course of several days. A sand mandala means many things, explained Geshe Lobsang Tsetsen, the leading teacher among the monks. “The sand mandala, it is a technical meditation,” Tsetsen said. “This is a tradition of hundreds of years. It’s not just colorful designs.” [link]