“Kolam”
is a form of drawing, drawn using rice flour and natural/synthetic coloured
powders. It may oe line drawings with
curved loops and the like drawn around a grid
pattern of dots. There are
complex ones representing divine picturines and other forms like Rangoli. It often is the reflection of painstaking
efforts of one or a group of people.
Many a times Kolam competitions are conducted and some males too get the
prize ! Kolams are regularly drawn in
Maada veethis before the procession of deities ~ the month of Margazhi is special as people
would put kolams in front of their houses, early in the morning welcoming the
Sun rise. In April
2014, there was this interesting article on Tibetan monks spending 30
hours building intricate artworks with
millions of grains of sand - then brush them away to teach followers nothing
lasts forever !
The group calling themselves ‘The Mystical Arts of Tibet’ are group of travelling monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in India. They use millions of grains of rice to create their artworks. Their work has received praise from the likes of the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere..... surprisingly the stunning artwork made by intricate spread of millions of grains of sand made by hours of painstaking work, is only swept away immediately after that !! The series of mandala artworks take a group of ten monks up to 30 hours to complete. They use millions of colourful grains of sand only to brush them away once complete to promote the understanding nothing lasts forever. Each of the monks' sand-painted works begins with a drawing process. The coloured sand is then poured from traditional metal funnels, called chak-purs. This technique takes a long time to perfect, as the monks not only need to have a great deal of patience, but also need to learn the correct breathing technique so they have optimum control over the chak-purs. The monks hold the chak-purs in one hand, running the metal rod across a grated surface, which creates a vibration to make the sand flow. For doing this, first the artist monks must be initiated by qualified teachers and receive all the required empowerments.
After that, one can
learn the arts of pouring the sand, for which one has to learn the correct body
postures and breathing. Monks need to
learn how to breathe gently and team works because all the monks have to work
together with lots mindfulness and mutual understanding. 'One must have passion, dedication for arts
and must know benefits and meaning of the arts. Then everything comes easily.
'Procedure
is to sweep away after the completion, as it is a very important teaching of
the process to learn the condition of all things, including our physical body
and that everything comes with expiration date - nothing is going to last
forever.' Gala Rinpoche, a spokesperson
said, ‘People like the sand
mandalas and we can sometimes see lots of emotion from viewers, especially when
monks do the dismantling ceremony - that is the best opportunity for us to
learn to let go’.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
15th Apr 2015.
