Opening Ceremony

   Unity North Atlanta Church

presents

Tibetan Monks 2007

Opening Ceremony

Sunday, November 25, 2:00-3:00 pm

The monks will begin by consecrating the site for Manjushri, the Spiritual Wisdom Mandala. The ceremony includes chants, music and mantra recitation. Sha-nak Gar-cham, Dance of the Black Hat Masters also will be performed. This ancient dance for the elimination of negative energies and hindrances is in the style known as drak-po, or “wrathful.” The implements held by the dancers symbolize the transcendence of ego-identification on the outer (the environment), inner (the emotions), and the secret (the subtle body-mind link) levels. Their movements symbolize the joy and freedom of seeing reality in its true, bare nature.

The monks begin the work by drawing an outline of the mandala on the wooden platform. This is very exacting work which takes about three hours to complete.

The following days see the laying of the colored sands, which is effected by pouring the sand from traditional metal funnels called chak-pur. Each monk holds a chak-pur in one hand, while running a metal rod on its grated surface; the vibration causes the sands to flow like liquid.

Opening Ceremony and Start of Construction     Pictures by Judy Thompson