Published on: 12 August 2013

The Gyuto Monks, known worldwide for their deep harmonic chanting, were guests of the Centre for Ethics this week. Boys from the Preparatory and Senior Schools had an opportunity to learn about the Tibetan monks’ beliefs and watch them create an intricate sand mandala.

On Tuesday, boys filtered in and out of the Chapel as the monks created the colourful mandala – a gesture of peace, harmony and the symbol of a perfect world. The mandala, built with coloured sand ground from rock from the Himalayas, was dismantled as soon as it was completed to demonstrate life’s impermanence.

On arrival, many boys were given a Tibetan-style friendship bracelet and heard about the Gyuto Monks’ history and beliefs from their animated translator, Sonam. Some boys also had an opportunity to blow into their Tibetan horns while others were privy to their multi phonic chanting.

Humanities teacher Helen Knight said her Year 7 Humanities class was most intrigued to learn more about the monks as they had been studying Buddhism and other religions as part of their unit on Ancient China and India.

Ms Knight said the boys also participated in an activity where they wrote down qualities they admired or aspired to on pieces of papers. These were then coloured, folded into squares and then bound in wool, which was a memento of the experience.