San Jose Museum of Art Sand Mandala Creation

At the San Jose Museum of Art

Friday, September 23rd through Sunday September 25th, 2009

Two Buddhist monks from the Tibetan Children’s Education Foundation (TCEF) will construct the mandala, sacred to the Tibetan culture, in the museum’s atrium. The presentation begins Friday at 11 a.m. with a blessing ceremony. The construction will take place Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. concluding with the destruction of the mandala and the distribution of the sand. Admission to the viewing is free and open to the public; regular museum admission applies to the galleries. The San Jose Museum of Art is located at 110 South Market Street in San Jose.

For more information call 408-294-2787 or visit www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.

Lead sand mandala artist Venerable Ngawang Chojor, assisted by Lama Paljor, will construct the mandala. Created by hand, sand mandalas embody traditional meditative designs that represent the universal qualities of harmony, balance, community, and pure wisdom. The monks work every day until completion. After drawing an outline of the mandala on the wooden platform, the monks lay colored sands over the design using traditional metal funnels called chak-pur. There are many types of mandalas, all with outer, inner, and secret meanings.

About - Mandala Makers
Venerable Ngawang Chojor
Born in Tibet, Venerable Ngawang Chojor currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a senior monk of Namgyal Monastery, the personal monastery of the Dalai Lama. Beginning his studies at the age of thirteen, he trained in all the traditional arts and became a lead teacher in ceremonial arts for apprentice monks. Ven. Chojor has constructed sand mandalas throughout the world, including the World Trade Center in New York and other locations throughout the United States, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan, and China.

Lama Paljor
Born to Tibetan refugees, Lama Paljor is a monk from Zhekar Choede Monastery in Kalimpong, India. He is the founder and director of the Zulik Sikkim Educational Hostel and the Good Star Academy primary school in Sikkim, the town of his birth near the Tibetan border. He has traveled to such places as France and New Caledonia to construct mandalas.