The Tibetan Center in Kingston recently welcomed the construction of a new sand mandala promoting religious unity and world peace.

The center's program director says six Buddihist monks from a monastery in northern India visited last month, and spent about a week sculpting sand into symbols of different religions and of Tibetan culture.

It's part of a world tour for the monks, who are creating other similar mandalas with the encouragement of the Dalai Lama. The director says this piece will remain at the center much longer than usual.

"These pieces are always made, a ceremony happens for about a week or so, and then at the end it gets dismantled. So we are fortunate enough to have these sand manadala in our center for a whole two years, so that people can come and recieve the blessings and the peacefulness," said Angela Suescun-Lampe, Tibetan Center program director.

Much of the sand from the center's previous mandala was poured into the Hudson River in Saugerties, intended for oceans throughout the world.