In October of 2006, the Multicultural Awareness Committee sponsored a weeklong visit by Buddhist monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Tibet. The monks presented lectures and a concert featuring traditional dance, costumes, instruments, and their renowned multiphonic style of singing. During their visit, the monks created a mandala sand painting (above). At the North Dakota Museum of Art, a pattern was drawn and then painstakingly filled in with colored sand crystals. To symbolize the impermanence of the world, the mandala was swept away in a closing ceremony, and the sand crystals were distributed to the audience as a blessing.