"Compassionate Mandala Tour"
October 8 - 12, 2007

Three Buddhist monks from the Dalai Lama’s private monastery in India spent a week meticulously creating—grain by grain—an intricate, symbolic pattern in colorful sand on a large table in the lobby of George Washington Hall.

The sacred art is meant as a message of peace and compassion, and was created during a week of chanting, meditation, and discussion the monks shared while in residence on the Andover campus. Their stop in Andover is one of four cities on their “Compassionate Mandala Tour” to honor the Dalai Lama’s receipt of the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington on Wednesday.

When the work on the mandala was complete, a hushed crowd of nearly 400 stood solemnly as the monks swept the sand into an urn, in keeping with the Buddhist belief in impermanence. In silent procession, the crowd moved down the hill to the shores of Rabbit Pond. Candles were distributed and lit, and they watched as the sand was cast into the water, returned to the earth from which it came.