Master sand mandala maker Lobsang Tsultim (left) instructs fellow monk Lungrik Topden in the art at St. Joseph's Cultural Center Sunday afternoon. (Photo by Ben Furtado

Last week's shootings that left three people dead and three others injured didn't affect only Nevada County.

Nine Tibetan Buddhist monks visiting this week from India were moved by the tragedy.

The holy men from Gaden Shartse Monastery, here since Sunday, initially planned to share their culture and heritage through lectures, sacred dance and music and the creation of a sand mandala, a form of spiritual art.

After last week's shootings, the monks added "purifying body, mind, speech" to the goals of their 15-day visit.

"We will extract all the negative states of minds in Nevada County with the sand mandala," Lobsang Wangchuk said Friday. Wangchuk is the one American who lives at the South India monastery.

Among the negative states are anger-hatred, desire-attachment and ignorance. The sand mandala will be built over the next nine days at St. Joseph's Cultural Center in Grass Valley.

Two weeks ago, the monks planned to create a sand mandala representing Buddhist wisdom. After the shootings, the monks changed the topic to represent the female enlightened being of Dukar, or the White Parasol.

"Dukar is for suppressing and eradicating obstacles in the mental continuum of human beings, specifically their negative states of mind," Wangchuk explained.

The monk said everyone in Nevada County has to accept responsibility for what happened and not blame the gunman.

"If we blame someone else, we're still left with all the negative feelings in our heart-minds," he continued. "We have the potential to change the minds of the beings in this community by engaging positive minds."

The monks will explain how to do so through performances, healing empowerments and talks in Grass Valley and Nevada City.

"We want to bring happiness to the community," Wangchuk said.

Visiting Nevada County for the first time, Wangchuk and Choesi Lobsang Tsultim said residents here have been receptive, especially compared to individuals in other cities they have visited during their one-year American tour.

"So far, everyone's been very kind," Wangchuk said. "People in Nevada City and Grass Valley are happy to see us. In some cities, people are afraid of us because we're different."

Tsultim, in charge of the sand mandala, added that residents here smile more, seem happier and warmly greet the monks, as compared to other locations.

"People seem comfortable here," Tsultim said.

So far, the monks have performed before students at Ananda Village and at Yuba River Charter and Grizzly Hill schools.

"Where we live, children sit on the floor, they have no desks, and they share books. There's one light in each room of the public school," Wangchuk said. "If you were to plop these schools in India, you'd overwhelm them, your schools are so beautiful.

"Your youth especially have such pleasing faces," he added. "There's no negative emotion. They're very happy children."

The monks will perform sacred music and sacred dance at 8 p.m. Saturday at St. Joseph's Cultural Center, 410 S. Church St. in Grass Valley. Suggested donation is $15.

A healing empowerment session, in which negative energy is removed from individuals through visualizations, will be at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday at St. Joseph's. Suggested donation is between $10 and $20.

Sierra Friends of Tibet is sponsoring the monks' visit. Call St. Joseph's Cultural Center at 272-4725 for viewing hours of the mandala.

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