Tibetan medicine and healing has 
always been crucial to the Buddhist path
so creating a medicine mandala
is one way of healing the community
but also healing the environment.
The word 'mandala' is a Sanskrit term 
meaning container of essence.
It is that sacred circle embodying 
some sacred essence within.
Originally they would've 
used powdered stones,
powdered gems – things like lapis, 
malachite and so on.
Today they use crushed marble
made into sand.
The colours are very important,
because they symbolise 
different attributes of the deities.
But in this particular one 
that we have here
it is all about the 
Medicine Buddha and healing
and what they create is a 
heavenly palace all around him.
Most of the monks have been in 
monasteries since the age of about seven.
They would've learnt 
the actual art of
painting a mandala 
in the first instance.
But to actually make a sand mandala
takes about five years to train,
because it's a very precise art
tapping the sand out 
of these copper funnels
into these intricate 
geometric designs.
The prayers that the monks perform
are to do with invoking the 
presence of the Medicine Buddha
and inviting the healing power
to enter the centre 
of the mandala.
And then throughout when they're actually 
performing / creating the mandala,
they are meditating on that same thought.
and for those people who are watching
every grain of sand 
will give one a blessing.
This form of Buddhism is about
developing your mind's potential,
a way of transforming the mind,
so the person who is 
using this in meditation
would imagine themselves as 
the Medicine Buddha in the centre
and they would try and 
break down the barriers
of their normal deluded life
into the pure enlightened 
mind of the Buddha.
A very important Buddhist belief
is the impermanence
– they don't believe 
that death is the end.
it's just a passing phase, 
it's our essence that carries on.
But also that you shouldn't 
be attached to anything.
So the idea of the destruction
of the sand mandala
is really putting it 
to bed, if you like.
We return to the elements,
so too is the sand mandala
returned to the elements.
