Source: The Virginian-Pilot
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/04/monks-creating-sand-mandala-odu-peace-week
It wasn't your typical lunch hour at Webb Center, the student center at Old Dominion University.
Arrayed behind a table across from the food court Monday, nine Buddhist monks in flowing maroon and gold robes and plumed yellow headdresses stood motionless with eyes closed.
For 30 minutes they chanted in harmony, the low guttural sounds rising to occasional crescendos of pitch and volume. Toward the end they added instruments: Tibetan trumpets, a drum, a bell, cymbals and a pair of deep-voiced, 10-foot-long horns called dung-chen.
Acknowledging with slight smiles the applause of a rapt audience, the monks then doffed their headdresses and got down to their task for the week: creating a sand mandala.