IC News

It’s midday on Thursday, November 3, and the Campus Center lobby is typically busy as students, faculty, and staff make their way to and from lunch and class. In contrast to the bustle, two Tibetan monks from the Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies—Ithaca College’s neighbor on South Hill—are calmly bending over a five-foot square table, painstakingly sprinkling grains of colored sand into place in the construction of a mandala.  

Ordered and geometric in design, mandalas (pronounced MAHN’-duh-luh) are found in Tibetan Buddhism and other religious traditions and can be thought of as abstract depictions of the palace of a celestial being.  

Although incredibly artistic, they are considered much more than works of art. Eric Steinschneider, assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, who spearheaded bringing the mandala build to Ithaca College, likens them to an architect’s blueprint—essentially two-dimensional representations that function as plans for the construction of what are, in fact, three-dimensional structures in contemplative rituals.   

The artistry involved is one of many skills monks can learn during their training, according to Ngawang Dhondup, the administrator at Namgyal Monastery. While not all monks at larger monasteries may have the expertise, all 275 monks at the relatively small Namgyal-Ithaca are required to. They create sand mandalas for communities across the United States, and by bringing the Chenrezig mandala to campus, says Dhondup, the monks bring peace, harmony, and prosperity to IC. 

Religious Studies junior Erin Baum, who had been watching virtually, stopped by Campus Center on her way to lunch to see the mandala up close.  

“I think it's really beautiful,” she said. “And it's an opportunity for people to recognize cultures outside of their own and outside of the ones that they're regularly exposed to.”  

She planned to return for the afternoon meditation session and attend the public talk Thursday evening when Geshe Jamyang Dakpa, senior teacher at Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies, would share some of the history of the monastery and Buddha’s teachings around the importance of love, compassion, and mindfulness, and Steinschneider would discuss the meaning of mandalas. 

Namgyal-Ithaca, located just up the hill on route 96B, is the official North American monastic seat of his holiness, the XIV Dalai Lama, and a non-sectarian institute offering the study of Tibetan Buddhism.  

“The college is situated right next door to something of a cultural treasure,” says Steinschneider, who sees bringing the mandala to IC as an opportunity to celebrate this and to promote the cultural and religious diversity of the Ithaca community. “Given everything happening, both locally and globally these days, I think we could all use a bit of compassion right now. And if the mandala helps us remember that we all seek well-being and wish to avoid suffering, isn't that all that really matters?” 

For Diana Dimitrova, director of International Student and Scholar Services, who coordinated the event, it was a celebration of surviving the isolation of COVID; she was joyful at being able to share the creation of the mandala not just with the IC community but also with those from greater Ithaca and further afield.  

“It’s wonderful to welcome people back to campus,” she said. 

Dimitrova reported connecting with visitors from Rochester and Syracuse in the Campus Center and was looking forward to seeing more out-of-towners coming to view the build over the weekend and for the completion and dissolution on Monday. She also had groups of schoolchildren scheduled to visit Friday. 

Once finished, mandalas are symbolically destroyed to signify the impermanence of all things—a central teaching in Buddhism.