From jars that nearby, the Tibetan monk loaded colored sand into a slender metal funnel called a chak-pur and carefully the sand in tiny mounded patterns.

The sand on a blue backboard on which the monks had lightly drawn an intricate geometric pattern. Over a period of 12 days, the colored grains they were on the backboard created an intricate 4-foot-wide circular symbol called a mandala.

The monks started working from the center outward. To reach some parts of the mandala, they bowed so far forward that they were almost on the floor. Yet they hardly seemed to become stiff from the bending and stretching. If I had in that position half as long, I would surely feel stiff.

While I watched, one monk down successive mounds of bright white sand, like tiny mountain ranges. I saw another down a broad field of turquoise blue, an ocean of sand. A third monk had just aside his metal funnel and was his cushion near a corner of the mandala that had not yet been finished. His metal funnel was next to the jars of colored sand, but he did not let it there long.

Soon he held the funnel delicately above the intricate pattern of the mandala, lightly scraped its side with a metal rod, and on the backboard out a tiny flower of sand.

Click here to display the verb forms of lay and lie.