Recently, the Chengguan District of Lhasa, capital city of SW China's Tibet Autonomous Region, made great efforts to create the “Holy Tour of Lhasa City: Enjoying Exquisite Mandala Religious Art” event, held at the Qingnian Road Phuntsog Kangsang International Youth Hostel, which attracted a vast number of tourists and locals to come view mandala production.

mandala production [Photo/People.com.cn]

At the mandala production site, different colors of sand are divided into separate bowls on a Tibetan-style table, bright and colorful, and different kinds of tools are placed neatly on the table. Monks in a pious state of mind, wearing face masks, begin creating the sand mandala after a short rest. As people began to see the production of the mandala, they sat excitedly around the mandala template, watching the monks put the colored sand into an iron cone, tapping the iron cone with varying force to scatter the sand onto the template. As people watched the monks meticulously create the mandala, they sighed from time to time: to be able to personally witness the production of the mandala religious art in Lhasa, this unique, long-standing cultural and historical holy city of Tibetan Buddhism, is truly a blessing!

Chonyi Wangmo, director of the Chengguan District Tourism Bureau, explained that the main purpose of this event was to exhibit the oldest, most essential Tibetan folk artistry of mandala creation for locals and tourists, to allow tourists to witness sand mandala production for themselves, to understand the difficulty involved in creating mandalas and the thrilling result, to help more tourists understand the profound Tibetan culture, and to attract more tourists to come experience Tibetan culture.