1. Mandalas

2. What is a mandala?
The word comes from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. It loosely translates to mean “circle.”
A mandala is a circular design filled with brilliant colours and symbolic shapes that grows outward from its center.
Mandalas have been known to all cultures throughout history. Individual designs vary greatly but they always have the following characteristics:
a centre
cardinal points
some form of symmetry

3. The many forms of Mandalas

4. Nature
Examples of mandalas are found in nature. Every cell in our body, for instance, is a living mandala. So is the iris of our eye, a snow crystal, a bird's nest.

5. Rose Window
A rose window is a generic term used to describe a circular window with a complex design which bears resemblance to a multi-petalled rose.
Rose windows are characteristic of Gothic architecture.

6. Rose Window of St. Denis Abbey Church, interior view, 1137-1144, near Paris

7. Buddhism
A mandala is an imaginary palace that is contemplated during meditation.
The palace has a square wall, each side of which contains an opening (or door) accompanied by a gate that faces each of the four corners of the Earth.
Most mandalas contain a host of deities (god or goddess) as well as significant inanimate objects.
Tradition dictates the shapes, sizes and colors of these objects.
A mandala utilizes the circle (symbol of the cosmos) and the square (symbol of the man-made world).

8. a 3-D model of the Vajrabhairava mandala

9. Tibetan Sand Mandalas
This is a Tibetan Buddhist tradition which symbolizes the transitory nature of things.
Sand mandalas traditionally take several weeks to build. It is common for a team of monks to work together on the project.
After the ceremonies are over the monks will dismantle their work and cast the particles into a body of water, a process underscoring their value of detachment from the material world.

11. http://www. youtube. com/watch
(close up of what they’re doing) (timelapse)