In the history of Buddhism culture in Asia, a mandala art symbolizes the heavenly realm of the cosmic and enlightened beings. One tangible cultural legacy in Indonesia that can relate with the physical mandala is the largest Buddhist monument in the world, Candi Borobudur. Niki Saraswati utilizes the outline of the Candi Borobudur and develops it to the colorful Niki Mandala.
Borobudur temple is built to represent many layers in Buddhist concept. From a bird’s eye view, the temple is in the shape of traditional Buddhist mandala. A mandala is central to a great deal of Buddhist and Hindu art, the basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandala is a square with four entry points and circular centre point. Working from exterior to the interior, three spherical of consciousness are visualize, kamadatu, rupadatu, arupadatu with the central sphere representing the source of divine consciousness or Nirvana.
1500 BC: Rigveda
Sanskrta Definition: Circle
Mandala was the name of 10 chapters in RigVeda; composer Family of Rishi
RigVeda Definition: praise, shine, knowledge
720 AD: Mandala Candi Borobudur
1300 AD: Kalachakra Mandala, Tibet
Mandala in Ancient Culture
Hopi-Navajo Indian Tribe in America
Mandala-making is the traditional healing method of the Shaman in the indigenous tribes of North America, the Navajo and Hopi Indians. This was meant to restore the balance in health, the Shaman invoke the spirits through the means of a drawing.
Kalachakra Mandala in Tibet
In Tibet, the mandala ritual directs the path (mind) to seek the door of enlightenment. One of them as the mandala patterns painted on thangka fabric, and the most popular was the sand-mandala initiated by the Dalai Lama I and the art-making continued with the vestiges of Dalai Lama XIV (the present).
Vastu Purusha Mandala in India
The sacred Indian architecture, Vastu Purusha Mandala, Purusha holds power, an energetic being assigned in the subdivisions of each square inside the mandala. He is the architect and initiator determining the proportion and distribution of energy on Earth. Purusha’s presence is the manifestation of the divine plan to become the blue-print of reality.