Monks create sand art at Crow Museum

Welcome back, Tibetan Buddhist monks are back at the Crow Museum of Asian Art on the UT Dallas campus this week, creating an intricate mandala sand painting. Every time they do this, I think we just sit there and watch in awe. So to have them here really is a treat for us. We have Caroline Kim with the Crow Museum, and then we have Geshe Sawah, who is a Tibetan Buddhist monk, a spokesperson for them. Thank you both for being here. This is such an art. I feel like I shouldn't breathe Because you guys do these huge. Huge ones, I mean, these artists do this at the Crow Museum, they are massive. We have a scaled down version here for us today. Caroline, as we start to do this, explain why this is so important and why this is so special. Yes, absolutely. We're so thrilled to have our friends from the Drepung Loseling Monastery back. Because what they do when they represent the making of the sand mandala, it's really about unification. It's about bringing and inviting everyone from the community, from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, to come and share in something special. And the idea behind being a part of and participating in the making of the mandala is that we all share a certain energy. It's meant to have healing powers. So even just being in the presence of these sacred monks, creating this. Beautiful piece, it's meant to bring health with wellness and meditation and health. I've seen this from a distance, it's interesting to see it close up now, I'm understanding the basics of it, where the vibrations allow the sand to kind of pour out. And this would, I'm imagining it's taking a lot of wrist control, I mean, how do you Well, you're going to get to try it on your own here in a second. Okay, what do we need to do? Yeah, so just pick up one of your chalkboards. Okay, this here. And then you can take a color. Just pour it. And you just put it in? You just put a little bit, a little bit, yeah. Oh, put my finger over there. Oh, plug it up. Yes, we are. You can, oh, yeah. Just like this? Yeah, you can do like this. It's easy for you. There you go. Scoop a little bit like this, right? Oh, that's a great, that's a great cheat right there. That's, yeah. And you have to hold this one. See, the expert knows how to do it. Right, exactly. Okay, so. If you feel there's a line, right? What? So on the line, what we have to do, oh, okay. Can we just do over here? I don't wanna mess up your work. Yeah, you have to fill this one, and you have to fill this one. Oh, I do? This is your area. Wow. So you can control the speed of the sand coming out by how fast and how slowly you. If you do faster, the sand will flow faster. If you do it slowly, you're going to . How do you learn the patience? Are you a patient person anyway? I mean, you have to be. You know, HLA is one year of training, right? One year of training. There's a lot of thousands of monks out there, but all they didn't know. How to make this one, right? So the monastery, our administrative member, select the monks from there some talent. Yes. So they trained us one year of training. They train you how to do this, wow. One year of training. One year of training. After a year, this would make me super relaxed. I'm telling you, look at this. Wow. Well, and you look at what he's already done here. So flat, it is all like the same level, whereas ours is like, you know, piles of sand here. But that's what is so unique and just so talented about what you guys do. Where can we see this? When can we see this? The huge ones, not our work, because boy, they know how to do it. Where can we see them? Yes, so we, our monks are with us until tomorrow afternoon at the Crow Museum of Asian Art on the UT Dallas campus in Richardson. And it's free. We are always free. This program is always free. We're always free as well. We also have a community sand mandala in which anyone can come and try their hand just like this. Oh, really? And a mandala as well. So it's right next to the ones that they're working on. And the closer you are, the more intricate. When this is over, what happens? We've had a wonderful week and what happens, we'll have one more meditation at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning on campus that is, again, open to the public. And then they'll finish the mandala and then we'll have a closing ceremony at which the Have a special ceremony and say prayers and bless it, and then they will wipe it all away. And they wipe all that away. So that's not too bad. That's wonderful. That's not too bad. That's somewhat of a design. I think he could do this in less than a year. I think you need a little more training. I need a lot more training. All right, you can check it out. It is just something so unique, so special to see again at the Crow Museum. We'll put the details on our website, fox4news.com. Thank you so much. Thank you. Truly an artist. Thank you very much. Blown away.