Mandala

What is Mandala?

In Buddhist, Hindu and Jain practice a mandala or related yantra is a sacred diagram, usually geometric, that represents a cosmos or a deity's dwelling. It is used in worship, initiation and meditation. This entry covers religious use only, not decorative patterns that borrow the name.

Who makes it, and where?

Buddhist mandalas are used in Himalayan traditions including Tibetan, Bon and Nepalese practice, and are made by trained monks and artists. Museums also record a related Jain yantra from Gujarat. Sources describe Hinduism as having a comparable concept, the yantra. Details differ between traditions.

Age. Museum examples include a 1648 Nepalese painting and a 15th-century Jain yantra from Gujarat; the sources give no origin date

How is it made?

Materials. Museum records list opaque watercolour on cotton for painted examples. Buddhist devotion also uses sand, thread, paper, small bronze figures and architectural models. Practice differs by tradition.

What do you see in it?

• A circle enclosing a square palace with four gateways
• A central deity with attendants in concentric rings
• Triangles and rings of mantras in Jain yantras
• Charnel grounds and rivers around the outer edge
• Orientation to the four directions

What does it mean?

Sources describe mandalas as diagrams of the universe or a deity's cosmic dwelling, used in initiation, deity visualisation and as aids to meditation. Sand mandalas end in a ceremony showing impermanence. A Jain yantra is described as a meditation aid. These are religious objects.

How is it practised today?

Mandalas remain part of living devotion. Monks have made sand mandalas in museums and public venues, followed by a dissolution ceremony. Museums also show historic painted examples. The sources opened do not cover secular or commercial uses, so none are described here.

How can you learn from it with respect?

• Do not copy. Do not copy a deity-centred or tradition-specific mandala or yantra as decoration, a logo or a pattern. Do not use one on products that will be stepped on, discarded or treated casually. Do not present generic circular patterns as sacred.
• Credit. Name the specific tradition, such as Tibetan Buddhist or Jain, the text or deity if known, and the museum or community source. Do not label it generically as Eastern.
• Support the makers. Learn from the monastic and temple communities that practise it, through their own invited public programmes, and from museum interpretation written with specialists.
• The principle you can learn. A centre-and-boundary structure can organise space and attention: one clear focal point, ordered rings and defined thresholds, used with respect to its source.

Sources

1. Mandala of Chakrasamvara Norton Simon Museum
2. Jain Tantric Diagram (Yantra) Norton Simon Museum
3. Mandala (glossary) Rubin Museum of Art, Project Himalayan Art
4. Mandala: The Architecture of Enlightenment Asia Society
5. Dust in the Wind: The Death of a Mandala Smithsonian Magazine