Tibetan monks have taken over the big middle room of the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery. The walls are hung with their bright wall-hangings, there’s a big trestle table covered in trinkets and there are two of those tibetan bowl-chimes Ian Pitt and I played with on New Year’s Eve, 1999-2000 in Yarramalong. Down the front, at 10.10am yesterday, the orange monks chanting, a beautiful welling, ancient sound that went on and on. Small children sat quietly, even though it went on and on, about an hour all up. There was a big green mat on the floor in front of them, and some glass containners. After the chanting, they got up and made a start on their sand mandala, which is actually fine ground coloured marble. They do it from memory. They were being photographed and filmed from all directions, including from mine.