Unknown to many of the thousands of people on the Island this week, an important group of visitors arrived bearing a special gift. It comes in several forms. In one regard, it is a piece of artwork, a stunning visual display of painstaking intricacy. It also spans educational and therapeutic services, music and dance presentation, and cultural exchange. But most of all, the monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery hope to give all who attend this week’s events a sense of inner peace and compassion.

On Tuesday the visiting monks held the opening ceremony for their second Mandala sandpainting here. Before beginning the Mandala itself, the monks blessed the site; the Mandala is being painted in the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School cafeteria. The blessing consisted of an extensive and intricate chant, which included one monk perfecting rich tones, as well as several traditional Tibetan instruments. It was followed by a dance which interpreted the Buddhist values of cutting through illusion with wisdom, using the symbols of the dagger and the skullcap.

After the ceremony ended, the monks went to work on a three-foot square space, planning the Mandala sandpainting with chalked string and a compass. Planning the intricate design lasted just over an hour before the first grains of blue sand were poured.

This year, the program has expanded to include a weeklong series of lectures, running through July 10, and morning meditations, which run through July 11. Geshe Lobsang, Emory professor and spiritual director for the Drepung Loseling Monsatery in Atlanta, leads this year’s events.

The pinnacle of the week’s artistic offering comes on July 10 at the sacred music and dance program at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs. The performance is billed to include traditional temple music and masked dancing, and will showcase elaborate costumes and unique multiphonic singing.

On Saturday, July 11 the Drepung Loseling monks will unveil the completed work, as well as its meaning, at a lecture on the symbolism of the Mandala beginning at 10:30 a.m. They will then put the finishing touches on the sandpainting in a closing ceremony at 1 p.m.

The Vineyard marks but one stop on the monks’ national tour circuit. The tour began in 1988 as a way to raise money for the South India-based monastery. The South India location is the Drepung Loseling’s second home after it was forcefully removed in 1959, by a Chinese government hostile to its beliefs and practices. Islander Christina Mayhew (whose extended family graciously hosts the monks during their stay) spotted the monks at a performance in Utah and ventured to add the Island to their summer tour schedule.

The tour not only serves as a cultural exchange and a way to raise money for the monastery, but also to educate audiences about the current threat to Tibetan culture. “We have no country and we’re from a place where human rights were very severely abused by an invading regime,” Professor Lobsang said. He believes that teaching people about Tibetan history helps them relate by reminding them of their own hardships. The tour is “a way to share and to bring about peace and global healing,” he added. In order to do this, the monks share the sacred arts, to “bring peace and wellbeing to the audience.”

The practice of creating the Mandala is considered a complex form of meditation for the monks. At its simplest level, Professor Lobsang explains, it is “the environment that unfolds, harmonious and balanced, from the inhabitants living within a peaceful mental state.” He continued:

“It points to the inner processes by which one can transform one’s life into an enlightened life, like a road map, to transform destructive, unhealthy forms to healthy ones.”

And at its deepest level, he said the Mandala, “points to primordial reality — beneath the veils of illusion, ignorance, greed, and anger. We all possess pure essence which one can call divine; we have a fundamental purity. In Buddhism, we call that Buddha Nature.”

He also said he hopes the extended program this year will give those who participate a chance to experience a process of healing. The group did a Mandala on Sept. 11, and in New Orleans after the Katrina disaster. This year they hope that the tour will give people a chance to heal from the economic downturn.

“It’s clear that there are health benefits to meditation. Not just for people with faith, but also as a way of mindfulness,” Professor Lobsang said.

“Instead of chasing one thing after another, this is a very doable way to calm the mind and let go of the stress.”