***It should be first noted that I work as a photographer for the Florida Museum of Natural History. The following images were taken while on assignment for the museum and are therefore museum property. They have allowed me publish the images on my Web site. All copyright laws apply.***

In mid-February the exhibit Tibet: Mountains and Valleys, Castles and Tents came to the Florida Museum of Natural History. As part of the exhibit, the local Gainesville Buddhist center and Buddhist monks were invited to oversee and build a mandala. An intricate design made completely of sand, a mandala symbolizes a “heavenly abode or palace” of a Buddha. The mandala at the museum was created for Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of compassion. After the meticulous process of creation, the mandala’s fragile beauty is ceremoniously destroyed, symbolizing the impermanence of all things. These photographs are the process from creation to destruction, and hope to capture the emotional being of Buddhist faith and people’s reaction to it.

Millard Pate (left), a local Buddhist practitioner overseeing the mandala project, and Drupon Thinley Ningpo Rinpoche, pray before each day's work.

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*Mandala

*Megalodon

*Panther