The Art of Creating Mandalas

The 8th grade Movement Arts/Yoga class has been learning about the art of making mandalas and the symbolizism of this artisitic creation. They learned that many cultures have created mandalas, including visionaries in India, who painted mandalas in the form of concentric circles to convey their understanding that creation and destruction are always occurring in the cosmos. In Tibet, the practice of creating mandalas of colored sand is symbolic of an ideal universe. To create this art form, the mandala is carefully planned out and then is traced or drawn onto a surface that is traditionally painted blue. Carefully, after the color scheme is chosen, small amounts of colored sand are applied with small conical implements with different apertures. After the careful task of filling in the mandala with sand is completed, the mandala is ritually destroyed. The symbolic lesson conveyed is that nothing lasts forever.

Three 8th grade students spoke about their experiences with the manadala project. Nina and Toni agreed, "... that at first the mandala seems really tough to do. Then, you just get it!" Nina said, "We had to do a lot of testing of the different size cones to apply the sand; after we made those decisions, it was relaxing to do." Creating manadalas also made the students think more about where their bodies were in space in relationship to the mandala. Liz said, "It made us more conscious of what we were doing." Liz continued saying that she liked the process, "Once you get it you go on auto-pilot applying the sand...that is the really relaxing part." The beautiful, artistic results are a testiment to their creative abilities.