Peace by Piece

Several Gomang Buddhist monks solemnly filed into the foyer of St. Paul’s Catholic Center, dressed in traditional saffron and yellow robes. After putting on their yellow headdresses, which resembled ancient Spartan helmets, the monks gracefully sat down and began singing Tibetan prayers and blessings. \nThus began the opening ceremony for the creation of a sand mandala Wednesday afternoon. The mandala is an intricate sand sculpture created by monks visiting the Tibetan Cultural Center in honor of the 14th Dalai Lama’s visit next week. \nAfter the initial prayer service, monks began to painstakingly measure the dimensions for the mandala before they began the process of adding colored sand designs. \n“Tibetans are so precise,” said Elaine Irwin-Mellencamp, a spokeswoman for the Tibetan Cultural Center. \nIrwin-Mellencamp, the wife of musician John Mellencamp, attended the ceremony with the couple’s two young sons, Speck and Hud, in order to observe the monks’ new work of art. \n“Mandalas are a practice of patience,” Irwin-Mellencamp said. “They make these one sand granule at a time, and it takes days and days to create. Then, after they are finished, they just dump all the sand off into a lake.” \nMandalas underscore the impermanence of life, she said.\nDesigned by Tibetan Cultural Center Director Arjia Rinpoche, the mandala’s overall theme is “passion,” as well as shared themes of “peace” and “unity,” Irwin-Mellencamp said.\nRepresenting the Sikh faith was K.P. Singh, a member of the Indian community in Indianapolis. He spoke eagerly about the interfaith prayer service to be held with the Dalai Lama on Tuesday.\n“Compassion, unity and enlightenment will be enshrined within this holy and sacred prayer,” Singh said. “In all the hymns chosen, the words spoken and their translations and in the mandala itself, all these things will be.” \nNo matter how someone chooses to worship, Singh said God’s light is universal, equal and ever expanding.\nAll major faiths were represented at the ceremony, where the encompassing theme was “Prayer and Reconciliation,” Mother Linda Johnson, Episcopal chaplain of IU said.\n“This is an opportunity for all of us to get together, to break down the walls that divide us,” she said.