Worlds Largest Sand Carpet and Intriguing Sand Art
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When one thinks of sand art, sand castles are what often comes to mind, but Tibetan Buddhist monks have long designed magnificent mandalas out of colored sand, for which Iranian artists have put a new spin to — famous for their traditional Persian rugs, a group of artists have taken it to a whole new level by creating the world’s largest sand carpet.
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
The unique 39,370.078 square foot (12,000 sq. meter) world record carpet was created by 25 visual artists made entirely of 70 types of colorful sand found on the country’s southern island seashores of Hormuz, widely known for its red soil, to create the ‘Persian Gulf’ sand carpet.
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
The previous sand carpet record was 2,955 square feet (900 sq. meters) fashioned on the Canary Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, famous for its natural colored volcanic sand carpets in La Orotava, Tenerife, made every year for Corpus Christi by artists drizzling loose sand.
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
Photo Abolfath Davari / ISNA
World’s Largest Sand Painting
The largest sand painting record measured 9,250.7 square feet (859.42 sq. meters), created in the Town Hall square of La Oratava, Tenerife, Spain for the Patron Saint day festivities on June 13 2007.
World’s largest sand painting. Photo Pamela Heywood
Made of sand from Las Cañadas del Teide in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento in La Orotava for Corpus Christi, the artwork received its certification from Guinness World Records, listed as the Largest Sand Painting on the planet.
Photo Pamela Heywood
The procession walks all over these ephemeral carpets in the early evening, thus destroying these breathtaking works of art.
Photo Pamela Heywood
Photo Pamela Heywood
Photo Pamela Heywood
Sand Mandalas
Sand Mandalas are a Tibetan Buddhist tradition involving the creation and destruction of mandalas made from colored sand, ritualistically destroyed once it’s been completed. The destruction of a sand mandala is highly ceremonial, symbolizing the Buddhist doctrinal belief in the transitory nature of material life.
The Kalachakra Sand Mandala. Photo Hidoshi
The deity syllables are removed in a specific order, along with the rest of the geometry until the mandala has been entirely dismantled. The sand is collected in a jar which is then wrapped in silk and transported to a river — or any place with moving water — where it’s released back into nature. For this reason, the materials keeping with the symbolism are never used twice.
Historically, the mandala was not created with natural dyed sand, but granules of crushed colored stone. In modern times, plain white stones are ground down and dyed with opaque inks to achieve the same effect.
Sand mandala displaying its materials. Photo Mai Le
Before laying down the sand, the monks assigned to the project will draw the geometric patterns associated with the mandala. The sand granules are then applied using small tubes, funnels, and scrapers, until the full pattern is achieved.
Monks working on Sand Mandala at Nashua High School north.
Photo Mozart Diensthuber
Sand mandalas traditionally take several weeks to build due to the large amount of work involved in laying down the sand in such intricate detail. It’s common for a team of monks to work together on the project, creating one section of the diagram at a time, usually working from the center outwards.
Sand Sculpture Art
While some people create art with paints, others use sand and seawater to create sand sculptures — some are inspiring, others can be amusing, and a number of various sculptures can leave you scratching your head.
Artsplosure Sand Art 2007. Photo BellaBim
Photo VSQZ
Dinosaur on the beaches of Rincon de la Victoria, Málaga. Photo Teclasorg
Photo Ed Bierman
Photo Forbz
‘Meditation in Sand.’ Drawing on the banks of the Thames. Photo Todd Huffman
Photo Jyrki Leskela
Andrew Baynes – who has created works of art for Disney, the BBC and British Airways –
used 14 tons of sand and water to craft an animal sculpture at Vicar Lane shopping center.
Photo d4rr3ll
Six foot tall sculpture. Photo NetDiva
Homer Simpson and an ‘assistant’ with a real fire. Photo Edeidin
Photo Simon Davison
Three not so little pigs. Photo Simon Davison
Sand sculpture built for the Lexington Barbecue Festival 25th Anniversary Oct. 25 2008.
Photo Dennis Brown
Photo Simon Davison
Photo Simon Davison
Sand figures such as this dragon are often made on the beach in Torremolinos.
Photo Jack
Special thanks to Chana from Bright Horizons for sending info on the world’s largest sand carpet.
Sources: Press TV, Guinness World Records, and Wikipedia
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WOW! they are amazing. Some people have way too much time on his hands.
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WOW! it is incredible how talented some people around the world are!
These sand arts are really amazing, but all in all this would be too much work for me, and I wouldn’t have that much patience to do such sand art. Really great post.
Sand art, so beautiful and yet… it is ephemera.
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Deborah, those sand mandalas and sand sculptures were unbelievable gorgeous!
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Really nice sand art. I believe that this is really hard work, so I guess I wouldn’t ever try to do such art, but it’s really beautiful, so I’m looking forward to watch such sand art in real life.
Amazing – Lots of respect for the patience needed!!
39400 square feet is 3660 square meters, not 12000 square meters. Something’s wrong in these conversions.
Love the flash at the top. Is that new? There’s always so much to take-in when I visit your blog, I might have missed it before!
I stumbled this yesterday! Sorry it takes me so long to get around and say aloha and comment here as I really love your posts! They are always so informative, entertaining, and interesting.
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That is very beautiful and amazing! Hopefully the rain won’t destroy all that work. It’s amazing what we can do with sand.
Too much time, or a world of patience, Tom
Sadly, the sand art is indeed very short-lived, Mig.
Glad you enjoyed them, Wilson, they’re masterpieces in their own right
Definitely, Vince.
The proper measurement is 12,000 square meters, SomeGuy. Using an online calculator from meters to feet, the actual measurement is 39,370.078 feet. I was out by approximately 30 feet which I’ll correct, but by your calculations, you’re way out
Either that or I’m doing something horribly wrong.
The flash at the top, Kuanyin? Are you talking about the header / banner? We have 3 images for the banner which rotate each time you land on a different page here. They were created when we did the blog redesign last fall or summer.
I always enjoy your visits, and thanks for your kind words
And if anyone understands the difficulties in finding time to getting around to say hi, it’s moi 
Unfortunately, hey’re most likely already gone, Cheryl. If it isn’t the rain, it’s people walking on them, something which I could never bring myself to do.
Exellent work…Really nice sand art. I believe that this is really hard work, so I guess I wouldn’t ever try to do such art, but it’s really beautiful, so I’m looking forward to watch such sand art in real life.
I love it, This blog rocks,is it a deliberate policy not to advertise? I know how long it takes to put these posts up?
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Oh my gosh, these are absolutely amazing. I can only imagine the time and effort that is put into these pieces.
Thanks Delight, glad you enjoy it
No, I’m not opposed to advertising, but I don’t believe in things like Adsense or text link ads. I’ve simply never had the time to look into it very deeply. Should I do anything though, it would be with sites that I believe to be reputable.
Indeed, it would take countless hours, Anna.
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Amazing art, will this carpet will disappear if some one talk through it.
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The time spent in the sand painting in La Orotava is about 1 month with 10 artists (more or less)
Certainly is a amazing job.
They are awesome and I can’t even imagine the patience needed…..
this is amazing….i dont have words to say how beautiful it is….thanx for sharing such a wonderful thing.
1 meter = 3.2808399 feet
but,1 square meter = 1 meter * 1 meter = 3.2808399 feet * 3.2808399 feet = 10.7639104 square feet
so, 12 000 (sq. meters) = 129 166.925 sq. feet
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Amazing!! wonder how to wash it ?
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wonderfull……..!!
amazing…
This is an amazing and awesome creation
I like fanatics. Real fanatics of their favourite business. And such sand work is a good example of interesting people!
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They are awesome and I can’t even imagine the patience needed…..
hi,
your pic are great……………
I accidently canme across them.
keep it up.
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the pictures were very intersting.first picures were from IRAN.
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This was so amazing. I only see this post now! is this already included in guiness book of world records?
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Cool
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İran????
WOW! thats freaking amazing!
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wow, that is amazing,,, I don’t really have words to express.
What a talent..!
This carpet is huge and will be perfect in residence of a giant.
These are amazing, i love stuff like this! Thanks for putting it up.
The first sculpture is pretty much seems the carpet in the hall of my office building. The others are also interesting and seem vessels.
amazing pictures, thanx for sharing!
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Interesting. Like the spiritual ones they make in India and then sweep away to signify impermanence of our existence.
Thanks you.. great post..
The people that create the amazing art in your posts are so artistic and creative. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful Art.
Deb, I don’t know where you locate all these interesting topics, but keep it up, I love reading your work.
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!