Inglewood was home to two Tibetan monks for nine days recently, where they completed a sand mandala at Forrestal Lodge.
Venerable Geshe Jamyang Sherab and Venerable Karma Gyasy created a sand picture of the home of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Chenrezig before they poured the blessed sand into the Kurapete
Stream on Sunday.
Inglewood's Jeanette Wilson offered the lodge for the monks to create the mandala.
``To see them do it, it's incredible,'' she says.
``The children that don't pay attention in class were watching the monks intently. It's excellent to see.''
The monks memorise the mandala, which takes around two years to learn, and Jeanette says each monk will usually only learn two mandalas in their lifetime.
``Everyone that sees it, feels more love and compassion,'' she says.
Jeanette hoped to take the monks up the mountain, however, the weather put a stop to that - instead they went carting.
It was Geshe's first time in a cart but Karma says he was a natural.
``He was like that famous race car driver, Michael Schumacher,'' he says.
Around 100 onlookers attended the closing ceremony on Sunday, where the monks swept up the sand to demonstrate that not everything is forever.
``Not everything is permanent. You should do your best but shouldn't be attached to what we do have,'' says Jeanette.
The public were allowed to take home some of the blessed sand and the remaining sand was gifted to the water spirits.
Jeanette hopes the monks return to create a healing mandala at her healing centre.
