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From The Kansas City Star:

Toddler's dance destroys monks' intricate sand painting
Talk about a test of faith.

Eight Tibetan monks spent two days cross-legged on the floor at Union Station, leaning over to meticulously create an intricate design of colored sand as an expression of their Buddhist faith. They were more than halfway done.

And then, within seconds, their work was destroyed by a toddler.

Monks are bald, so they couldn’t rip their hair out. But were they angry? Did they curse?

No. They simply smiled and started over.

“No problem,” said Geshe Lobsang Sumdup, leader of the group from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in southern India.

“We didn’t get despondent,” he said Wednesday through a translator. “We have three days more. So we will have to work harder.”

That the monks were able to shrug off their setback can be attributed to their religion.

“It teaches us that nothing is permanent,” said Staci Olsen, a volunteer at the Rime Buddhist Center in Kansas City.

And the mother and child:

Sometime Tuesday after the monks had finished their labors for the day a woman with her small child visited the post office inside Union Station, near where the design was being created. The child, apparently attracted by the pretty colors, wandered over to play with it.

“He did a little tap dance on it, completely destroying it,” said Lama Chuck Stanford of the Rime center.

The mother did not report the incident, but a security camera at Union Station captured the moment.

“She summarily picked the child up and boogied,” said Bob Smock, security manager for the station.

The sand design was surrounded by stanchions, but the child simply went under the tape. Officials have said they now will place benches around the new creation to further protect it.

Posted by DaveH at May 24, 2007 7:13 PM