The Sand Mandala is a tradition involving the creation and destruction of mandalas made from colored sand. 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. It is common that a team of Tibetan Buddhist monks will work together on the project, creating one section of the diagram at a time, working from the center outwards.