Three Tibetan Buddhist monks, robed and sleeveless in saffron yellow and maroon vestments, sit cross-legged on den, cushion, in a Bob Kirby Branch meeting room.

They bend at the waist, a mandala centered among them – chak-pur, a funneled Tibetan sandpainting tool, in hand. As they scrape ridges, a gentle vibration releases colored sand from the tool’s fine tip.

Seven monks from the Drepung Gomang Monastery of South India have shared their culture here for a weeklong event hosted by the Warren County Public Library.

It began with a cultural pageant Monday, where they shared aspects of their endangered culture: Tashi Shoelpa, a dance for good luck; an enactment of a Tibetan Buddhist debate, how Buddhist philosophy is often taught in monasteries; and the chants of Nyurzema, Mahakala and Chöd, meaning “to cut off,” a practice designed to remove ego-clinging and defilement in an offering to deities.

“Just that they’re here in this town doing Chöd is beautiful – that they’ve come, and did a practice for feeding the demons,” said William Cecil Joiner, an attendant at Monday’s pageant.

Since Tuesday, the monks have poured over this Interfaith World Peace Mandala – an intricate representation of harmony that centers Earth, a dove superimposed, among symbols from major world religions.

“Harmony is very important because harmony is the rule of happiness,” lead monk Geshe Chaeden said.

They were set to end the visual prayer Friday. Then, in a Saturday dissolution ceremony, they’ll sweep it into a container and head to the RiverWalk bridge near the Bypass to release the sand into the river – an act intended to represent impermanence and share world peace.

“It’s such a beautiful spiritual act … that brings together all world religions and prays for peace in the world with the expectation that it’ll make a difference,” said Deborah Faircloth, an observing library patron.