sand mandala, part two

remember when i posted the images of the tibetan monks making a sand mandala?

well those same guys spent the week creating one of their masterpieces at occidental college.  i decided to go for the closing ceremonies which included the sweeping up of the finished product until there was nothing but the table left and a small pile of sand.

sand mandala

 a hearty thank you needs to go out to my fellow pasadena daily photo blogger petrea, for passing on the news that tibetian monks were creating sand mandalas right here in pasadena - and that you could go see them FOR FREE!  so i abandoned plans for a skywatch friday photo, and grabbed my camera.
 
i packed up the family and made the short walk down to the pacific asia museum.  it was spellbinding watching these four men create visual works of detailed art with nothing but colored sand and some simple tools.  as you can see below, they worked in a small space, but created beautiful images!

if you are interested in going, they will be there for a few more days.  you can find details right here.

ojai day

i spent this past weekend was in ojai, california with a group of students and staff from occidental college.  i'm in the middle of an internship with oxy's office for religious and spiritual life.  our weekend included a visit to an organic farm and camping up in the mountains.  if you don't mind, i'm going to take a few days to escape pasadena to share a few photos from our trip to ojai.

we were fortunate to be in town during ojai day - a street fair celebration of the town and area.  the above photo is of the hand-painted mandala - something that gets re-created every year.