Buddhist sand mandalas are made with sand of different colours trickled onto a backing to make a design. When they are finished they are poured away.
It’s a concept designed to teach the futility of trying to stop time. I heard of Buddhist sand mandalas many years ago. The idea of making something with impermanence designed into it from the get go appealed to me.
And I saw a sand mandala being made in a monastery in Nepal. Seven or eight young men were working on it.
They were learning two things. One was to devote effort to something that would be destroyed soon. The other was to learn how to work together. There was no room for big egos if they were to lie and sit close to one another making the mandala.