CEDAR FALLS - Tiny grains of yellow sand trickle slowly from the chak-pur onto the black table.

With steady hands, Gedun Pekar guides the small, funnel-like tool across the table. Intricate details appear on the emerging sand mandala depicting the Buddha Akshobhya, the Buddha associated with purification. Pekar was one of three monks, along with a former monk, on campus creating the mandala this week. The visitors come from the Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas.

Geshe Thupten Dorjee, co-founder of the institute, said the trip to Cedar Falls was designed to educate others and expose them to a different cultural experience. "We want people to see how meaningful this is and how they can apply it to better themselves," he said.

It also is the perfect prelude to the Dalai Lama's planned campus visit. In September, the university announced the Tibetan spiritual leader and exiled head of state had accepted an invitation to visit campus, with the date yet to be determined.

The centuries-old art form was seen only inside Buddhist monasteries until 1988, when the Dalai Lama allowed the works to be completed in public.

Dorjee said he is happy to see others benefitting from the art form, but hopes that it remains a spiritual process and doesn't become simply an "exhibition."

"As soon as people see this, it leaves an imprint on them that makes them stabilize their lives," Dorjee said. "That small seed can grow into tremendous big deeds. This leaves a positive karmic imprint."

Despite the clamor of hundreds of elementary-aged children and an ever-growing crowd of onlookers the monks continued their work, focusing all their energy and attention on the miniscule grains of crushed marble falling from between their fingers and the chak-pur.

Marilyn Johnson, a Waverly woman watching the mandala's progress Tuesday morning, was impressed by the work.

"I am so glad they came to UNI to share this with people. Their power of concentration, their ability, their skills, it is just amazing," she said.

Young children, all students in the university's Child Development Center, also were amazed by the work. Several even giggled with glee as Dorjee lifted them higher to see the men work. Brooke Smith, 5, said the children in her class colored a mandala picture earlier in the week. She also was quick to mention that the creation was very similar to ones she could make with Moon Sand, a moldable sand toy.

Pema Yangchen, a UNI graduate student and Dorjee's niece, helped bring the mandala to campus. This is the first time she has seen the art as it was created.

"I could sit here and watch them all day," she said. "It takes so much energy and concentration. To think, we get tired just holding a cell phone and these guys can work for hours and hours."

The work will end Sunday with a closing ceremony, where the mandala will be destroyed to symbolize the impermanence of all things.

"It's meant to show that nothing lasts forever. … From the beginning, we know that this will be destroyed in seven days. That is reality. Nothing is the same as it was the second before," Dorjee said.

A live Web stream of the mandala construction will be available at www.uni.edu/mandala.

Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1570 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.