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In many eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, a mandala is an image that a person creates to help him or her meditate. The mandala represents the entire universe. It is the palace in which a god lives, so at the center of each mandala is a symbol or picture of that particular god.
Surrounding the god are the walls of the palace. The palace always has four, decorative gates—one on each wall. Around the palace are more circles. Each represents something different.
As a person creates a mandala, he or she meditates about every part of it.
Mandalas can be made out many different materials but the most impressive are sand mandalas. Tibetan monks place grains of colored sand, one-by-one, on a flat surface. Four monks work together on large sand mandalas. Each monk works on one quadrant of the mandala. All four monks must work at the same speed so that they all finish at the same time.
Go look at the pictures on this website to see monks creating a mandala. I especially like the close-up of the mandala. You really can see every grain of sand.
When the monks have finished creating the sand mandala, it is swept into water. This is meant to release the god from the mandala.
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To make your own sand painting, you will first need to make some colored sand.
Materials Needed:
Sand
Food Coloring
Plastic Containers
Spoon
Paper Towels
Pour some sand into each plastic container. Use a different container for each color. Pour just enough water into each container to cover the sand. Then add food coloring and stir each mixture until you have all the colors you want. Let the sand sit for at least an hour to absorb the color. The longer it sits the brighter the colors will be.
When you’re happy with the colors of the sand, spoon it onto paper towels to dry. Remember to keep the colors separate. Clean and dry your containers so that when the sand has dried you can return each color to its own container.
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Follow the instructions to make your own colored sand or buy sand that has already been colored. It is available at most craft stores. Now you’re ready to make a sand painting.
Materials Needed:
Colored Sand
Thick Paper like Construction Paper
Elmer’s Glue
Water
Plastic Container
Paintbrush
Pencil
Gather your materials. Decide what you’d like to paint and use a pencil to draw it onto your paper. You can use any color paper because the sand will cover it.
Pour some glue into an empty plastic container. Mix in a little water to make the glue easier to paint with.
Choose your first color. Paint glue into the sections of your masterpiece that you would like to be that color. Try to paint only a thin layer of glue. Before the glue dries, sprinkle colored sand onto it. Tap off any sand that doesn’t stick and pour it back into its container.
Continue to fill in your painting with sections of color until it is completed. Let the painting dry for a few hours.
Cover the colored sand and save it for another project or create another sand painting right away.Return to main page.
Some Native American tribes in the northwest, particularly the Navajos, use sand painting in healing ceremonies. Because the Navajos believe that sickness is caused by offending a god, the ceremony is meant to restore the patient to that god’s good will. The tribe’s medicine man uses colored sand to make pictures on the ground of the hogan (the ceremonial home), or on animal skins. He uses his hands to scatter the sand into special shapes and patterns that are believed to have healing powers.
The paintings are not made to last and are not stuck in place in any way. In fact, we have very few photographs of sand paintings that were actually made during ceremonies. Paintings have been made for the public to see and take pictures of but they are not exactly the same as those made during healing ceremonies.
The ceremony can last for nine days and nine nights if the patient needs it but is can also be performed in two nights or five nights. First, the sickness must be taken from the patient’s body by herbs or sweat baths. Then the gods must be summoned, through sand paintings, so that the patient can make up for his offense.
The medicine man usually chants while his assistants create the sand painting. The painting can range from only a few feet square to twenty feet square and its main colors are blue, white, black, and yellow. When the sand painting is finished, the ill person sits on it so the gods can enter his body and restore harmony. You can see how the sand painting wouldn’t last very long. After the sand painting absorbs the illness from the patient it is swept out of the ceremonial home.
You can look at some sand paintings by clicking here. Just click on any of the artists’ names in the list. Notice that all the sand paintings on the website are for sale which means that they were not created for healing ceremonies. They were also stuck down, not laid loose on the ground to be swept away later.
Check back tomorrow for a sand painting project! Return to main page.
