Photos by Paula Barry

Excellent long shot of the overall vajra pavilion support foundation on the universal mandala site of Khandroling.




A close up of Jim Smith pouring concrete into one of the support piers. These concrete support piers will hold the columns that will support the massive roof over the universal mandala.




Another close up of several of the support piers that will all be filled with concrete. Previous videos show the process of embedding steel rods in the support piers. Behind the piers you can view the large retaining wall that circles the entire outer mandala.

Final Video of the Season

Final Video of the season with magnificent views of the nearly completed retaining wall and large pier molds being poured with concrete. The large truck mixing and pouring the cement down a shute is on top of the mandala surface. At the outer perimeter is the retaining wall nearly completed. Here in this video one has a real sense of the enormity of the project.



A series of still photos recently taken on Khandroling by Paula Barry will be posted to this site shortly.

Final Work Scheduled for this Season-Fall 2008

Next week, the builders at Tsegyalgar will pour the concrete into the main pier supports as the final work for this season. The piers are the supports for the Vajra Hall columns that will hold up the massive roof structure. The final stage of work planned this year, if there are sufficient funds, will be to back-fill the entire mandala site to protect it over the winter.

Please stay tuned next week for our finale videos. Over the coming months we will post a variety of documents, maps, and photos relating to the project.

So, stay tuned for next weeks final videos.

More Video Overviews of the Mandala Pier Supports and Outside Retaining wall

video #13- On October 20, 2008 we poured the concrete for the exterior circular foundation. Here you can see the proces:



Video # 14 October 31, 2008



Video # 15





Video # 16



Video #17



Video # 18



Video # 19



Video # 20






This final video (# 22) also made on October 24, 2008 shows an amazing overview of the mandala site and support piers.

An Upadate on Waste Disposal on Khandroling Building Sites

Joe Zurylo writes:

Hello to all

I received some good news from our sanitary engineer
this morning. Come to find out that the codes concerning
waste disposal on Khandroling will allow a 100% increase in use if a
composting system is used. In other words, if a particular
site is capable of sustaining a 3 bedroom house with this
alternative system it could be increased to 6 bedrooms.
This increase in usage for the composing system will be of
great benefit to us as we develop Kandroling

Building Foundation Forms

This video was taken yesterday on Sunday October 5, 2008. It shows the foundation forms are almost finished. Looking into the form one can see the reinforcing steel rods that we placed into the bedrock last week.



Just a quick up-date on what's happening over the past few weeks--

This past Monday, the footing for the colonnade was poured. we used 24 cubic yards of concrete. 9000 concrete blocks were delivered which the masons are beginning work this Thursday putting up the perimeter foundation walls. The foundation for the 12 major columns are near completion with Jim Smith and crew beginning to tie off the reinforcing steel rods. We plan to pour these large footings next week and we do mean large as some of the piers contain up to 3 cubic yards and weigh up to 12000lbs a piece. If the New England winter will hold off for another month, the foundation for the Vajra Hall will be complete.

Many Thanks to all the builders and individuals who contributed their labor and funding to the development up to this point!

Development of the Pier Structures and Further Work on the Khandroling Mandala Foundation

Video 1- Here is Jim Smith on September 17, 2008 recording a series of brief videos on the Mandala foundation outlining recent work done at the Khandroling site.



In video #2, an evocative silent moment at the Stupa just below the mandala



Video 3—here Jim Smith shows the framing of one of the support piers with long shots of other piers in place and further preparation for the bedrock foundation



Video 4- A really excellent description by Jim Smith of the steal reinforcements used in the pier supports to stabilize the concrete
foundation.




Video 5- A continuation of looking up close at one of the pier structures that will eventually support on of the twelve pillars of the vajra pavilion building.



Video 6/7-An overview of some of the pier structures



Video 8 –A challenge



Video 9—Full circle.