The International Festival «The Art of Tibet»
On 6 - 14 November the ceremony of constructing of the sand mandala of Yamantaka will be held in the Museum by name of Nicholas Roerich.
The monks of the Drepung Gomang Datsan Monastery headed by Otog Rinpoche will create the sand Yamantaka mandala and perform the ritual of the White Mahacala in the Museum by name of Nicholas Roerich.
Beginning in September the monks of the Drepung Gomang Monastery has performed this ritual in Ulan-Ude, Chita, Kyzyl, and Elista. After the ceremony in Moscow they are going to create the mandala in Saint-Petersburg thus finishing the tree-months tour around Russia.
The sand mandala is a graphic image of a temporary palace of the Deity in honore of whom the mandala is created. Before creating the mandala the monks perform the ritual of blessing the location where the mandala is going to be created. After that a sand image is created and passed through the third stage of being blessed. The destruction of mandala is the last stage of this process which symbolizes the impermanence of life and releasing the refined energy which is enclosed in the mandala. There is a belief that the participants of the ceremony are filled with this released positive energy.
In ancient times the mandala was created with crushed semi-precious stones, but nowadays brightly coloured crushed marble are used for this purpose.
Representatives of all religions may observe in this mandala the birth of the perfect world giving us hope and strengthening our belief whatever it is.
The mandala is dedicated to the Deity who belongs to the Great Chariot of Buddha Teaching and to the highest part of Tantra — Mahannutarayogatantra.
The individual Yamantaka is the manifestation or emanation of Mandjusry Buddha — the personification of Wisdom.