About 240 objects are now on permanent display in a Tibetan Buddhist shrine room at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
The shrine used to be in a private home in New York, that of photographer, child psychologist and author Alice S. Kandell, who gifted her collection to Mia. The space has Buddhist ritual objects from Tibet dating from the 1300s to the early 1900s.
As part of the ceremonies leading to the opening of the room, several Buddhist monks from the Jangchub Choeling Nunnery in India created a sand mandala which was created over the coarse of five days and was on display for a week.
According to the Mia, the creation and destruction of a sand mandala is a deeply spiritual practice, symbolizing the impermanence of all things. After the site of the mandala is purified, the individual grains of colored sands are placed using tubes, funnels, and scrapers.
The destruction of the sand mandala is known as a Dissolution Ceremony. The sand is swept and collected into a jar to be transported to a body of water. The sand from this mandala will be swept and transported to the Mississippi River.
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