Thursday, December 27, 2007

Tibetan Mandala


When watching the documentary 10 Questions for Dalai Lama, the making of a Tibetan Mandala aroused my interest. Using colored sand, the monks make intricate patterns out of colored sand, which represents a microcosm of the divine powers at work. What impressed me is not just the beautiful patterns they created, but rather the way they deal with the finished piece: instead of hanging it on the wall of the temple, they place the artwork in a river and let it decompose with the flowing water. This sense of temporality is key to the Buddhist belief. An immediate association is the artworks of Andy Goldsworthy.