April 2009: Santa Barbara welcomes the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama greets his lecture audience at UCSB.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Monks from a monastery in Long Beach bow in greeting and respect toward Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Looking bigger than life thanks to a giant video screen, the Dalai Lama appears to loom over his audience at UC Santa Barbara during his sold-out speaking event. Tickets to the lecture were reportedly being scalped for $600.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery meticulously arrange millions of colorful grains of sand as they construct a traditional Tibetan sand mandala at UCSB’s University Art Museum as a way to honor the Dalai Lama, who is visiting the campus Friday.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

An image of the Dalai Lama seems to watch over the shrine as monks try to finish up their weeklong effort, which visitors have been invited to observe.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

A monk works in some of the details of the vibrantly colored sand mandala.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

A monk chooses from a palette of colorful sand. The mandala is traditionally destroyed shortly after completion, symbolizing the impermanency of life.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Visitors watch as the monks perfect the mandala. Observers are also invited to closing ceremonies.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Santa Barbara artist Joy Davis, center, guides visitors in the art of creating a sand mandala.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Monk Geshi Thuptan Kunpheh demonstrates a Tibet prayer instrument to two UCSB students.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)