Beginning February 26, 2001, the Ven. Tenzin Thutop and the Ven. Tenzin Deshek, two Buddhist
monks from the Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, New York will construct a five-and-a-half foot Medicine
Buddha sand mandala in the Ackland's Yager Gallery of Asian Art. This process will conclude by March 21,
though the mandala will continue to be on display through June 8, 2001. On that day, the monks will
dismantle the mandala and deposit the sand in a body of water. This process symbolizes the transience
of life and the ideal of nonattachment to the material world.