Photos by Stanislav Doležal. Text by Saša Neuman.
How many times in a lifetime is one lucky enough to see someone create the universe? When Tibetan monks pour out a sand mandala, that's exactly what's happening. They create a universe, build an abode for the central deity and his entourage, invite them in and let them radiate peace, tranquility, bliss and compassion to the whole world for a while. When the deity eventually leaves the mandala, the monks disturb its perfection, sweep it into a ritual vessel, carry it to the river, and dump the colourful sand into it. The energies flow into the surrounding landscape and everything is back to normal. Only not quite. Something has changed, though it may not be apparent at first glance. The spreading of the coloured sand mandala is a centuries-old ritual, originally a very esoteric Tibetan ritual, performed by monks out of the public eye as one of the "appropriate means" to aid in the path to spiritual awakening. Such a centuries-old secret atmosphere of this ritual can be seen, for example, in the remarkable documentary film The Message of the Tibetans by the French documentary filmmaker Arnaud Desjardins. The film depicts Tibetan spiritual culture just a few years after the exodus from their homeland to India, still largely unaffected by the confrontation with the outside world. Before his arrival in India, the current 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, was already keenly aware of the universal human need for harmony, peace, love and compassion, not only in his former homeland and not only among Tibetans. And soon he began to publicly perform the great Kalachakra ceremony, also accompanied by the pouring of the sand Kalachakra mandala, and to concretely and symbolically send peace, tranquility and harmony to all needy sentient beings throughout the world.
Published in 2025 on the occasion of Stanislav Dolezal's photography exhibition "The Magic of Tibetan Sand Mandalas" at Tibet Open House, Prague.
FORMAT: 176 X 250 MM, 32 PAGES. PRINTED BY OFFSET ON GARDAPAT 13 KIARA PAPER WITH FREQUENCY MODULATED RASTER SATIN SCREENING.
ISBN 978-80-87201-51-0
