The Spiritual Art of Sand Painting

The Navajo word for sand-paintings means "place where the gods come and go." Sand-painting has been used for centuries in religious rituals and healing ceremonies performed by Navajo medicine men.

A sand-painting for a ceremony is made on the ground in the ceremonial hogan and destroyed at the end of the ritual. In order to preserve this long-standing tradition, in the late 1940's, Navajos began to create permanent sand-paintings, changing the design slightly to protect the religious significance when these paintings were shown publicly. Pictorial sand-paintings which reflect daily Navajo life also became common.

Process
Today sand-paintings are made by trickling sand slowly through the hand onto epoxy-covered particle boards, using sand made from naturally colored crushed rock, stone, and minerals for the different shades and colors.

At least 600 to 1000 unique sand-painting designs are recognized among the Navajos. They are not viewed as static objects, but as living things that should be treated with great respect.

Father Sky and Mother Earth appear in many of the sand paintings throughout most of the Navajo healing ceremonies of "Ways." These include the Shooting Way, Mountain Way and Blessing Way. They are invoked not because of a part in a particular story, but because of their strength and all pervading importance.

In the body of Mother Earth are the four sacred plants-corn, bean, squash and tobacco. In the body of Father Sky are the constellations, including the Milky Way, represented by the intertwined zigzag lines of dots, and the sun and the moon, represented by the circles with "horns."

The Rainbow God encircles three sides of the sandpainting, to protect the gods, Father Sky and Mother Earth. To guard the top, you find the medicine bag and a small rug- the real sandpainting uses a medicine bag and a bat. In the real sandpaintings, the open end faces the east. Various guardians of the east are used by the Navajos, including buffaloes, beavers, otters, bats, snakes, suns and moons, arrows, etc., according to the needs of each ceremony.

Source: www.canyonart.com/sandrugs

Tibetan Buddhist sand paintings, made by lamas or monks, usually consist of intricate mandala designs.

From a traditional iconography that includes sacred geometric shapes, ancient spiritual symbols, seed syllables, and mantras, the sand-painted mandala is often used as a tool to re-consecrate the earth and bless its inhabitants.

Process
The lamas begin by drawing an outline of the mandala on a wooden platform. The following days they lay the colored sands, by pouring the sand from traditional metal funnels called chak-pur. Each monk holds a chak-pur in one hand, while running a metal rod on its grated surface; the vibration causes the sands to flow like liquid.

Traditionally, like the Navajo Sand-paintings, most sand mandalas are destroyed shortly after their completion. This is done as a metaphor of the impermanence of life.

The sands are swept up and placed in an urn; to fulfill the function of healing, half is distributed to the audience at the closing ceremony, while the remainder is carried to a nearby body of water, where it is deposited. The waters then carry the healing blessing to the ocean, and from there it spreads throughout the world for planetary healing.