The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin invited monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery to create a 5-foot sand mandala within the museum’s Rapoport Atrium. Of all the artistic traditions of Tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism, sand painting ranks as one of the most unique and exquisite. Mandalas (= sacred cosmograms )can be created with various media, but the most spectacular and enduringly popular are those made from colored sand.