Several of the Tibetan monks visiting Randolph’s campus this week took time out to meet preschoolers from the College’s Nursery School. The monks were putting the final touches on a Medicine Buddha mandala when the preschoolers arrived for a short visit. After watching the monks, the children entertained the visitors with a rehearsal for their upcoming Halloween concert.

Seven monks from the Tashi Kyil Monastery have spent the week creating the sand mandala in the College’s chapel. They have worked from 10 a.m until 7 p.m. each day, painstakingly placing millions of grains of colored sand. The monks chose the rocks, smashed and pounded them into sand and colored them while at their monastery in India.

The monks are from Tashikyl, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Dehra Dun, India. A Buddhist cultural center in Indiana is hosting them for a tour of the United States The monks, who are from a monastery in Dehra, Dun, India, are on the last leg of a U.S. tour designed to share the Tibetan culture, promote peace, and raise much needed funds for their monastery. Their next stop is in Washington, D.C.