Kalsang Gyatso, right, and Tenpa Phuntsok work on a mandala they were creating at Franklin College on Oct. 4, 2011.
Daily Journal Archive Photo
News from around Johnson County as reported on Oct. 5 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 111 years.
On this day in 2011, the main story on the front page of the Daily Journal was about Buddhist monks visiting Franklin to create a sand mandala.
“The image takes shape with every colored grain of sand,” the story began.
Four monks visiting from the Labrang Tashi Kyil monastery in Indiana had spent two days creating a sacred work of art called a mandala at Franklin College. The men had spent hours hunched over a square platform, carefully placing grains of sand in an intricate design.
The result would be artwork that is beautiful but also inspires people to consider their role in world peace.
“In Tibetan culture, what’s important is how to bring inner peace. Once we have that, we can bring outer peace, that is the world peace we need,” said Arjia Rinpoche, director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington.
Franklin College was hosting the monks on one stop of their U.S. goodwill tour to share Tibetan and Mongolian culture. Other stops were Bloomington, West Lafayette, Philadelphia and Washington.
The Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center helped arrange the tour with the Dailia Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists.
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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
2020
Community leaders joined together to form a youth committee in Trafalgar to drive more engagement in the town.
2005
A Center Grove High School student admitted to making an online list of classmates and Roncalli students who were labeled as needing to die, police said.
1963
Work was expected to begin soon for an addition to the Franklin Public Library, then located at the corner of Madison Street and Home Avenue.
