To celebrate the opening of the Nepal-Buddha Pavilion, monks were invited from Nepal to draw the sand mandala for the Buddhist memorial service. It took as long as two weeks to complete the sand mandala. Five different colored sand, which included the sand from the four sacred lands of Buddhism (namely, Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, and Kushinagar) were used exquisitely to draw the breathtaking work of the sand mandala. The delicate sand mandala is the quintessence of Nepalese Buddhist art.

The Sanskrit mandala comes from manda, meaning “nature, center or essence” and la, meaning “to possess.” Combined, it means “a being with nature, center or essence”, specifically indicating Buddhahood and the world of spiritual enlightenment. Training monks of Esoteric Buddhism concentrate on the mandala and picture an image of the world of Buddha, gradually shrinking it into their minds. This is how they practice visualization and meditation. The mandala originated about 1,500 years ago in India and was introduced to Japan by Kukai.

The sand mandala Buddhist memorial service is a sacred ceremony where Buddha and gods are invited. It is said that it brings peace and purity to the minds of people who see it, and that it has the power to encourage the purification of the world. Once seen before death, it is said that the person will never lose his/her way in the other world. Usually, sand mandalas are destroyed upon completion and the sand is swept out into a river or lake. This is to return Buddha and gods to the heavenly world.
         However, at the Nepal-Buddha Pavilion, to widely introduce Nepalese Buddhist culture, we had monks specially create a sand mandala exactly like the one created in the memorial service and it is exhibited in the Pavilion .