Photo by Douglas Imbrogno

It's called the Wheel of Life, but in Buddhist circles the sand mandala Losang Samten is crafting as we speak in the Clay Center lobby is more commonly called the Wheel of Samsara, a depiction of the cyclical round of rebirth and suffering. The former Buddhist monk had already completed the heart of the wheel yesterday when I snapped the photo above: depicting the three big enchiladas of Buddhist focus. A rooster chasing a pig chasing a snake chasing the rooster -- representing craving/greed, anger/hatred, and ignorance. He'll be at the work the next two weeks, so stop by and see it in progress. Like many Tibetans, he seems a gracious, happy soul. After it's done, the sand mandala will be dismantled and poured in the river, the deconstruction a Buddhist reminder of impermanence. Traditionally, mandala makers offer little vials of the drawing before it is whisked back into nothingness, and the Tibetan fellow, a former Buddhist monk ordained at the Dalai Lama's temple, indicated they would do that here, too.

Painstaking detail, sometimes grain by colored grain, goes into the mandala (at right)

Here's his public schedule while in Charleston:
MANDALA MAKING: He'll work on it at the Clay Center daily from around 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The painting should be completed by July 1. A dismantling ceremony will take place July 2.
PUBLIC TALKS: Samten will appear 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday (June 22) at First Presbyterian Church; at 11 a.m. Sunday, June 25, at the Unity Church in North Charleston; 5 p.m. Sunday, June 25 at the India Center along Corridor G; and 11 a.m., July 2 at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 520 Kanawha Blvd. W.