Photo by Ron Cassie Students, professors, townspeople and children filled Shepherd University's Scarborough Library last week to watch Buddhist monks paint a sacred sand mandala. Purchase this photo

Of all of the Tantric Buddhist artistic traditions, the 1,200-year-old sand painting remains one of the most intriguing and exquisite. Tibetans refer to it as the "architecture of enlightenment."

Tenzin Phentsok explained the mandala symbols: the Lotus Flower, representing spiritual purity and divine origination; the Eight-Spoked Wheel, representing the Eight-Fold Path; and the Knot of Eternity acknowledging the interdependent nature of existence. All are meditations on aspects of Tibetan Buddhism.

Mandalas have meaning on three levels -- external, internal and hidden. The external depicts the Earth in its divine form, the internal shows the spiritual path to enlightenment, and the hidden level reveals the perfect balance of chakras, or energy centers, in the body, and the illuminated mind.

"Mandala" is Sanskrit for circle. The blue center of the circle constructed in the library, Phentsok said, represented wisdom, clarity and the unshakable energy lighting the world.

In accordance with tradition, the mandala was destroyed to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists. A parade from the library followed the monks several blocks up to Town Run stream where the sand was poured into the water.

"Our blessed sand and prayers are released into a flowing body of water so that they will eventually be carried into the oceans and to the other continents around world," Phentsok said. "It is a very powerful healing practice."

Phentsok came to Shepherdstown, W.Va., last week via the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta, from his home monastery in southern India.

"Originally, my family is from Tibet. My parents left when the Chinese invaded in 1959," he said.

All 10 of the monks who visited Shepherd University last week as part of a four-day residency program are from India. "All originally from Tibetan families," Phentsok said.

A Communist Chinese invasion in 1949 quashed the Buddhist resistance movement and forced the Dalai Lama and thousands of monks into exile. Subsequently, the ancient Tibetan traditions -- and their religious message of compassion and loving kindness -- have spread around the world.

Tracie Welch, a teacher in Martinsburg, W.Va., took her children, Sera, 9, and Ewan, 7, out of school early to participate in the mandala ritual. Everyone in attendance was given a tiny handfuls of colored sand to drop in the creek.

"Usually kids will want to hold on and keep something colorful like the sand, but they got the idea of why it was important to let it go," Welch said. "It's an experience they will remember the rest of their lives, and it was eight miles from home. Most people would have to travel to India for this. How could I not take them out of school?"

Rachel Meads, Shepherd's director of the performing arts series, said this is the second time the monks have visited.

"We had them five years ago, and would like invite them every five years, so that all our students can see them at least once," Meads said. Local elementary schools also attend the workshops and lectures.

Phentsok said he was impressed by the number of school children who knew something about Buddhism and the struggles of the Tibetan people.

"The classes were planning to write letters to their representatives to 'Save Tibet' and stop the dumping of nuclear waste materials in Tibet," he said. "Children are very smart, very intelligent and born with the seed of compassion, but still it must be nurtured to grow."

In the evening following the mandala, the monks presented "Sacred Music, Sacred Dance," a program of Buddhist chants, rhythms and dances, in Shepherd's Frank Center for the Arts.

Two of the five CDs produced by the Drepung Loseling monks have been in the top 10 on U.S. music charts and their music is the heart of the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack for "Seven Years In Tibet."

"I think the people of the United States are freedom lovers, people who love freedom and democracy and live with more openness to new things," Phentsok said. "That's why I believe the Tibetan culture is embraced here, it is very much based on openness, as well as love, compassion and wisdom."

Phentsok said the traveling group's mission is to bring more peace and happiness to the world.

"As sentient beings we all want to be free from suffering," he said. "All happiness involves inner values, not materialistic things, which provide not even a single moment of recurring joy and happiness."

Fatima Lacerda, owner of the Hand of Fatima jewelry store, was one of several local shop owners and employees who left work briefly to join in the ceremonial pouring of the mandala sand into Town Run. Lacerda once lived in Katmandu, Nepal, and helped build a statue of Padmasambhava, better known as Guru Rinpoche, who brought Buddhism to Tibet.

"I feel the mandala is a very powerful prayer," Lacerda said. "It is a powerful energy. A prayer in action."