Today’s sketchbook experiment! (Which will make more sense by the end of this post.)

In the simplest terms, luk nimit are spherical sculptures, typically made of stone or concrete, used to demarcate sacred Buddhist grounds.

On a recent visit to my parents, we spent a Sunday afternoon at Wat Tummaprateip to celebrate the birthday of abbot Phrakhru Soonthon Srisongkhram, and it’s where I got to participate in the ritual of fang luk nimit for my very first time. We waited in line with other congregants for our turn to ladle concrete into the spherical molds, while reciting prayers, and receiving blessings.

I love the idea that these simple orbs are very slowly, very intentionally, formed by so many hands of the community. Once hardened, they will eventually be buried underground–but before that, they are blessed by the monks, and the community is again invited to take part in the process by applying gold leaf to them and reciting prayers.

It’s yet another slow, mindful process, where that magnificent layer of gold is actually the direct manifestation of many hopes, wishes, and prayers…from many hands, hearts and minds. I love that all these single, tiny actions, lead to such glorious results.

Now back to my sketchbook exercise. After writing this, I wanted to play with the idea of small repetitive acts. I grabbed an old stamp and applied it over and over to create the entire foundation for the doodle, from the sky, to the grass, to the dresses and flower petals… Then filled the details in by hand with colored pencil, and did a little clean up digitally. A fun little exercise in mark-making!