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Reiko Goto, a research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University's Studio for Creative Inquiry watches (above) as Tibetan Buddhist monks Sopa Gyatso, left, and Lobsang Tenpa work on a sand mandala Friday at the Chicago Cultural Center.

"I wanted to learn how they make the mandala, such an intricate design" says Goto, an environmental artist.

"I was amazed how the atmosphere was. It was not an intense situation as I expected, and not noisy, very relaxing," Goto said.

The intricate design of the work by the Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in India can be seen in an overhead view (below). Working on the mandala are, clockwise from the bottom, Sopa Gyatso, Tsultrim Nyingpo, Tsultrim Sherab, and Kunsang Gyatso. The "medicine Buddha" pattern, or "Menlha," represents healing. Mandala is an ancient Tibetan form of sand painting. The word mandala is Sanskrit for cosmogram, or world in harmony.

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