FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Tibetan monks are bringing their sacred art to Southwest Florida. The monks began their construction of a sand mandala at Florida SouthWestern State College in Fort Myers this week.
The process takes several days to draw and construct, filling the design with millions of grains of colored sand.
Once completed, the mandala is consecrated, then destroyed. "And soon after it's completion, it's just gone. After the closing ceremony it's dismantled. So it shows the impermanance of everything. Nothing lasts forever," says one monk.
The closing ceremony will be held at noon Friday and will feature the destruction of the mandala and polyphonic chanting as the sand is poured into the flowing waters on the FSW Thomas Edison campus.
