A group of Buddhist Tibetan monks are currently creating a work of art in Austin City Hall. The monks are on a Sacred Art of Tibet tour during which they will visit different cities creating sand mandalas and then wiping them away in dissolution ceremonies. The sand mandala being created in Austin symbolizes wisdom, said Kip Garth, Austin events coordinator for the tour. This is the third time the group has done a sand mandala in City Hall and the fifth time they have been to Austin, he said. When watching the monks work on the sand mandala, those people unfamiliar with the Tibetan culture seem to understand the artwork creation is a practice of patience, Garth said, but the practice has much more sacred meaning. "The mandala was taught by the living Buddha, who then passed it down and it continues to this day. That's how mandalas came to be," Garth said. "There are several levels of what a mandala is. On one level it's a celestial palace, a three dimensional object ... the monks can actually visualize the three dimensional form and enter in and go into this palace." While the mandala is a form of meditation for the monks, the colorful sand that comprises the artwork also serves as a blessing, Garth said. Those who attend the dissolution ceremony at 5 p.m. April 17 in City Hall will receive a small sample of the sand they can then use to bless their homes, property or anything else. The dissolution ceremony showcases another aspect of the Buddhist monk culture: Nothing is permanent but change. Watching the design get wiped into a pile of sand and then deposited into Lady Bird Lake can feel like watching a death, Garth said. "Whoever is in attendance is invited to a procession to Auditorium Shores," Garth said. "The remainder of the sand is deposited into the river. The idea of that is with all the intentional effort the mandala represents, those blessings will carry into the water and take itself downstream, enter into the [Gulf of Mexico], enter into the oceans and spread around the world."