Mandala of the Deities of the Five Elements and the Ritual Offering to the Four Classes of Spirits
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Some monks from Triten Norbutse Monastery, Kathmandu, have just finished making this magnificent sand mandala (rdul-tshon dkyil-‘khor), the Kun-‘bum go-‘byed dkyil-‘khor, which is the mandala of the Deities of the Five Elements.
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Tomorrow, one group of monks will begin the four-day ritual to these deities. Another group will practise the Sa-bdag nye-lam sde-bzhi, propitiating the four classes of spirits: earth spirits (sa-bdag), water-spirits (klu), tree-spirits (gnyan) and rock-spirits (stod/gtod).
This is part of the annual four-day summer ritual and ceremony of harmonising and purifying the spirits of the Universe.
The summer ritual to the worldly gods involves a lot of preparation – tormas (gtor-ma), namkhas (nam-mkha’), dö (mdos) and also wooden offering sticks (shing-ris) and other offering items.
Offering stick / shing-ris Namkha of the Emanations of Sipai Gyalmo for the Six Time Periods (of the day) / Las-byed dus-drug / Dus-drug zhal rnam Offering stick / shing-ris
Namkha for the water-spirits Klu-yi zhal nam Namkha for the tree-spirits Gnyan-gyi zhal nam Namklha for rock-spirits Gtod-kyi zhal nam Namkha for the earth-spirits Sa-bdag zhal nam
For those of us who cannot join this ritual, it is a good time to practice sangchö (bsang-mchod).
Photos of the mandala and namkha courtesy of Drubdra Khenpo Tenzin Tsultrim. Photos of shingri: Carol Ermakova. For more images of the sand mandala and namkhas, see Triten Norbutse Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/BonpoMonastery