Christina Destrampe, owner of Milwaukee Mandalas, takes us through the step-by-step transformation of a layered mandala.

Tenzing Rigdol, “Biography of a Thought,” 2022-24, acrylic on stretched canvas and woven carpet. The piece is part of “Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet,” which runs through Jan. 12.

On the fifth day, he invites the students at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design to help him destroy it. This is the lesson of the sand mandala, says the artist, the Venerable Tenzin Yignyen .