| The Navajo Indian Tribe create the world's most beautiful and intricate mandalas using a traditional sandpainting technique. For the Navajo, each design element in a sand painting imparts meaning for the sacred ceremony performed to honor the gods. The soft and subtle color of the sands and ground minerals, the infinite variety in the repetition of the lines, the abstract conception of the figures of the gods and transport the observer into a strange new world of beauty. Basic is the simple theme of four designs placed around the center. The same theme is repeated in squares and rectangles, then in numerous variations. Representations are made of the underworld in the middle, the sun rafts of gods around it, the three roots of the four sacred plants growing out from it, the designs change, repeat, and announce in indestructible variety the sacred stories of the Navajo myths. Navajo sand paintings are made in the mornings and early afternoons of the last days of a ceremony lead by the medicine man and his helpers. After a ceremony the sand art is destroyed. The subjects and patterns of sand paintings are transmitted by memory. It is a highly symbolism and sacred art. It is a representation of the coming of the gods and heroes with all their holy appurtenances to the ceremony being performed. It signifies the concentration of power. When the painting is finished black lines about a foot long are placed all over it to represent the power of the gods. Corn pollen, the emblem of fertility and strength of the Navajo people is also placed all over the painting at various points. Prayer feather wands are stuck in the enclosing lines. Then, the sand painting is destroyed. |
Navajo Sandpainting
