The multicoloured Kalachakra Mandala, made entirely from coloured sand, was painstakingly created over three weeks by monks from the Namgyal Monastery here in during the Kalachakra for World Peace at the Exhibition Place, Toronto.  His Holiness the Dalai Lama conferred the Kalachakra and gave taught lessons about the impermanence of life.  The completed mandala was destroyed and the sands were used as an offering for world peace. This event was organized by the Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario and it was for 14 days from April 25, 2004 to May 6, 2004.

  The creation of the sand mandala forms part of the Kalachakra ritual.

The mandala is a bird’s eye representation of the palace in which the Buddha Kalachakra resides with his consort and retinue. The palace at the heart of the mandala has three floors, symbolized by the three parts of the mandala.

Center or top: the Mind Mandala
The domain of mind

Middle or second floor: the Speech Mandala
The domain of speech

Ground floor: the Body Mandala
The domain of the body

During the Kalachakra ritual, this mandala, as part of the preparations for the initiation, will be created on
a base measuring approximately 3x3 meters by up to seven monks using narrow metal funnels. For this they will use both memory and "pure” instructions in text form. Their only orientational tools are a network of lines and the locations of the individual Buddhas of the palace as indicated by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. The sand mandala will take a number of days to complete.

During the ritual itself, this artwork made of sand will serve as an orientational aid to the participants, as His Holiness Dalai Lama explains the complex visualizations of the Kalachakra initiation.

This journey through the temple, as represented here, also enables participants to recall over and over again the path to synchronization of their external and internal worlds by summoning up the mandala or palace.

The sand mandala is also, however, a mnemonic aid for the participants. By the end of the several-day-long ritual, all the participants will have internalized this palace, which also symbolizes their own being,
thought and body, and will have committed it to memory. By this stage the sand picture is no longer needed by the participants and is ritually dissolved. The colored sand, blessed by the Buddhas residing in the mandala, is poured into a river in an act of blessing the surrounding. The flow of the water will enable the whole world to benefit from the positive energy.

The sand mandala for the Kalachakra for World Peace will be created by monks from the monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Namgyal monastery, Dharamsala, India).