When I recently attended an academic/religious conference, Tibetan monks demonstrated sand painting over a (long) three-day period. Every time my schedule took me near the room designated for the sand painting I stopped in to watch the (silent) progress.
Aside from the position of leaning over the art for hours at a time, no conversation among the monks working so closely together, and the fragility of the art created, the process is a lesson in temporality. Upon completion the art is dispersed as little bits of colored sand. In this case, the sand was given to anyone who attended the closing ceremony. Hours of laborious work: gone. A very humbling perspective.
