Sand sculpture blesses millennium with good karma

By ANGELA GREGORY

WHANGAREI - A detailed geometric artwork is being pieced together grain by grain in the Whangarei Museum.

On New Year's Day the Buddhist work, about 10 days in the making, will be swept up and scattered into Whangarei Harbour to recognise the impermanence of all things.

Tibetan monk Jamyang Sherab is creating the brightly coloured design for the city's millennium celebrations. Known as a Chenrezig sand mandala, it represents love and compassion.

The intricate work uses coarsely and finely ground coloured limestone, which is applied through a fine metal tube tapped by an antelope horn.

It involves a daily ritual of chants, prayers and deep concentration.

In India, where such work is often performed outside after the monsoon season, the labour can be undone by lizards or ants storming on to the fragile three-dimensional design.

But a member of the Whangarei Buddhist Centre, Cass McMillan, said the museum provided a safe venue, the only risk being Jamyang Sherab's cold when he started.

"He had to wear a mask over his face."

The centre has brought out Jamyang Sherab from the Sera Jey monastery in India, and two more monks will soon follow.

The monks left Tibet to pursue their monastic studies with older monks who had trained in the Dhargey Monastery in Tibet.

Meanwhile, Buddhist circles here are excited about the arrival of the revered High Lama Geshe Sonam Rinchen.

He comes from the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives at Dharamsala in India, where the exiled Dalai Lama lives.

He will take two courses on top of Parakiore Hill, which overlooks Whangarei, between December 28 and 30 and January 2 and 4.

A full prayer ceremony will be held at sunset on New Year's Eve.