Description
Beautiful puzzle based on the mandala.
The Mandala (Sanskrit: मण्डल for circle) is a generic term in Tibetan art and Tibetan Buddhism for a plan, map, or geometric pattern that metaphysically or symbolically depicts the cosmos. The concept has a Hindu origin but is also widely used in Tibetan Buddhism. A special form is the sand mandala, which, surrounded by ritual ceremonies, is crafted in meticulous detail over weeks using small grains of sand, after which it is ceremonially destroyed and returned to nature (flowing water). The psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung viewed the mandala as a representation of the unconscious self. The style of the images primarily followed the Indian period of the Guptas and Hindu art. Mandalas serve as meditation objects intended to support the practitioner in concentrating on the specific motif and the doctrinal content expressed through it. The oldest mandalas (plural) belonging to Buddhism have been found in the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Western China, and in Japan. In both sites, they are painted on rolled silk (scrolls) and date from approximately the 9th century (in Klimberg-Salter, 1982, p. 115). The oldest mandalas belonging to Himalayan Buddhism have been found in the Dukhang Gompa in Ladakh. They date from the construction of the Gompa, which took place between 1175 and 1200 AD. Today, Ladakh belongs to India, but it was once alternately independent and part of Tibet. Buddhism in this region remains the Tibetan form of expression well into the 21st century. Murals have been found in the Dukhang Gompa depicting the “Nine Mandalas” of Buddha Vairocana, of the bodhisattva or Buddha Manjushri, and of Prajñaparamita. Prajñaparamita, Perfection of Wisdom, is in its oldest form one of the first Mahayana Buddhist scriptures; a human form was later given to it. In the Hindu Rig-Veda, the term mandalas is used for the structured knowledge that can be recited. Each of the 10 books is a mandala. For example, the ninth is also called the Soma mandala. This conception of mandalas in abstract form was adopted by Buddhism in a certain architectural form. In the Ellora Caves in Central India, which were furnished between 700 and 730 AD, each of the three levels in Cave 12 is arranged as a mandala, with a Buddha representing the central part and bodhisattvas positioned in the cardinal directions. This architectural form is found in later centuries in gompas in the western parts of the Himalayas, such as in the Tabo 'dukhang' built in 996 AD.
The mandala puzzle.
