Monks, Mandalas, Medical Tsangkas at the American Museum of Natural History along Central Park

A group of Tibetan monks were present at the American Museum of Natural History for a special exhibit on Tibetan Medical Paintings. Khen Rinpoche Geshe Kachen Lobzang Tsetan, abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, along with monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery, demonstrated Tibetan arts, including the creation of a “Medicine Buddha” sand mandala. They are here for 6 days while the paintings continue on for several weeks.  The monks created an intensely intricate mandala of fine grain sands of brilliant colors.  The detail and care that goes into creating the mandala is evident in that it takes 3 to 5 days to create the detailed sand mandala about 3 feet by 3 feet.  At the end of the 6 days, they will sweep up the mandala at the end of their stay to signify the impermanence of life. There was also an absolutely fantastic collection of Tangkas that illustrate with great detail the Tibetan practice of medicine that has been practiced for the last several hundred years, many of the practices still in place.  It shares a lot of commonality with Ayurvedic medicine (both came from India).  Fascinating and the illustrations painstakingly detailed.  Check out the this link for more info:

http://www.amnh.org/calendar/event/Living-in-America:-Brain-and-the-Tibetan-Creative-Mindore

Here are some pics of the mandala in process:



An altar to the Dalai Lama at the exhibit




Monk showing great concentration in creating the mandala



Near finished mandala, soon to be swept up at the end of today after 6 days of creation



The collection of the mandala sands and tools



Details of the mandala are done in concert with sacred geometry that reveal inner, outer, and sacred meaning



We walked to the museum from our place that is situated along Central Park West, about a 2 mile walk one way. It was beautiful today, sunny and blue skies. If you walked in the sun, it felt like a crisp fall day even though it was 37 degrees.  We are definitely becoming highly acclimated to the cold here and enjoy the sunshine as much as we can. There is still a lot of snow and Central Park was still covered with snow and filled with people taking great advantage of it--cross country skiing, sledding, snow ball fights, building snowmen, just walking amongst the beauty of it all.  In an effort to rid the city of snow, the city is loading it onto large dump trucks and taking it to the Hudson River. Bob had mentioned this as an idea before we went on our walk and I laughed at the very thought as it seemed like a futile attempt given the vastness of the volume of snow to be dealt with.  But that is what the city is doing. We continued our discussion if we would ever prefer to live on the Upper Westside. I still stay it's not for me. I continue to prefer Manhattan mid-town or south of Midtown for living.  The Upper Eastside is appealing if only because of the concentration of fantastic museums. The AMNH is one of the few large museums on the West side.

Pics of our walk along Central Park West:

We went to see the movie The Company Men on Saturday evening.  It was okay, I thought Tommy Lee Jones' performance was the best.