Just outside Hall G of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Tibetan Monks are busy at work on a ritualistic spiritual exercise.
Credit Thomas Walsh
While chants echo in the background, monks prepare the multicolored sand used to build their project.
Credit Thomas Walsh
The intricate process must be carried out one grain of sand at a time.
Credit Thomas Walsh
Slowly, a mandala is constructed.
Credit Thomas Walsh
Common in Buddist and Hindu religious ceremonies, the mandala can be viewed as a microcosm of the universe.
Credit Thomas Walsh
By the time it is finished on Friday morning, the mandala will fill up the entire table. Shortly thereafter, it will be swept away and ceremonially deposited into the Mississippi River.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is visiting New Orleans this weekend for a series of pubic speaking events. This past week a group of Tibetan monks gathered at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to construct a mandala, which will be completed on Friday morning and then ceremonially deposited into the Mississippi River that afternoon.
Kenneth Terry with the Treme Brass Band plays the trumpet Monday during a community response to a shooting during a Mother's Day parade in New Orleans.
This week on Inside the Arts,we'll boogie down to Bayou St. John for the Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo Festival. Then, as the Dalai Lama heads to New Orleans, we'll talk with the co-author of his most recent book, The Wisdom of Compassion. And, we'll make a stop in the French Quarter where a popular art gallery re-opens after a 14 year absence from the New Orleans art scene.
Among those hit by bullets in Sunday's shootings at the Mother's Day second line was journalist Deb Cotton.
She writes for The Gambit, and covers the city's street culture. She remains alive, reportedly in stable condition, but badly injured by the incident. New Orleans author and journalist Jed Horne has worked with Cotton. He writes in The Lens this week about her perspectives on violence in the city.
