Harmonious monks: Tibetan monks create sand mandala at University of Puget Sound

A little bit of Tibet had transplanted itself among the stacks of books and studying students inside the University of Puget Sound’s Collins Memorial Library on Saturday.

Three crimson-robed Buddhist monks were hunched over a table, carefully pouring fine streams of sand onto a mandala.

The intricately detailed design, full of symbolism, was nearing completion after five days of work by 11 Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in India.

The monks were at UPS to make the mandala, perform their unique style of music and increase awareness of the endangered Tibetan culture.

The Mystical Arts of Tibet tour is also raising support for Tibetan refugees living in India.

Monk Tanzing Phunchog — Tanny to his friends — is the group’s spokesman.

Phunchog said monks spend up to two years learning how to make a mandala, with music lessons running concurrently.

“In the daytime, we learn to make the mandala. In the evening time, from 7 to 11, we practice the music,” Phunchog said.

The monks have lived in exile from their original Tibetan monastery since 1959. The monks visiting Tacoma range in age from 28 to 38.

“Monastery life is peace and knowledge,” Phunchog said. The knowledge comes from studying Buddhist scriptures.

Being a monk is a lifelong commitment, Phunchog said. But monk life is not exactly a bare room contemplating a lotus blossom.

“We try our best to give up the worldly possessions, but in this century we have to rely on them,” Phunchog said.

One possession the monks were making good use of this week was the chagphur, a funnel that delivers the sand in five primary colors and many blends to the mandala. They carefully vibrate the funnel to control the rate the sand falls.

What happens if a monk suddenly delivers a mandala-destroying sneeze? They simply vacuum up the misplaced sand using their mouths and tubes and start again.

Phunchog said it took him a while to learn the skills needed to create a mandala. In the beginning, there were “troubles.”

“Gradually it became familiar and not so much troubles,” he said.

Besides the spectacular detail, the mandala has emotional meaning, Phunchog said.

“To rejoice and happiness and also peace,” Phunchog said.

The UPS mandala, the Buddha of Compassion, followed the traditions of Tantric Buddhism. Some designs represent the world in its divine form and others show the human mind as it is transformed into an enlightened mind.

As the monks made the mandala, they reflected on Buddha’s teachings.

“They have to give lots of energy,” Phunchog said of the monks. “We find it enjoyable.”

The monks finished the mandala just before noon Saturday, and headed to eat at their usual lunch stop, the campus cafeteria. They have developed a taste for Italian food.

Later in the day, the monks performed “Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing,” in Schneebeck Concert Hall on the UPS campus.

The performance featured multiphonic singing, in which singers simultaneously intone three notes of a chord.

The lead chant master and his assistant are able to perform the difficult multiphonic singing while the other monks sing single notes and play instruments.

Asked if he can sing multiphonically, Phunchog breaks into a sheepish smile.

“I’ve tried,” he said.

The musical performance also used traditional instruments, such as 10-foot-long dung-chen horns, drums, bells, cymbals and gyaling trumpets.

As the monks worked on the mandala, a large portrait of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, kept watch.

Like the other monks in his group, Phunchog has never set foot on his ancestral homeland, which is controlled by China.

Phunchog said the Dalai Lama and his monastery support turning Tibet into an autonomous region. “Tibet can keep their own traditions, culture and ways, but China can control security. Like Hong Kong.”

The Dalai Lama’s photo would never be allowed in Tibet, where China bans all representations of him, Phunchog said.

“Here in the United States, in India, we can keep a photo of the Dalai Lama. In Tibet, if they find a photo among the monks or lay people, they will take it and put (the person) behind bars.”

Phunchog hopes to one day visit Tibet. Until then, “All we can do is pray.”

A closing ceremony in the library followed the concert. The intricate mandala was swept into an urn. A few minutes later and a few blocks away at Old Town Dock, the monks poured the sand into Puget Sound.

That, the monks said, is a reminder of the impermanence of life.

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 9:39 AM with the headline "Harmonious monks: Tibetan monks create sand mandala at University of Puget Sound."