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SandpaintingsUse in Navajo Healing CeremoniesThe Navajo People believe in harmony and balance as a central theme of their religious awareness. They live in harmony with "Mother Earth" and "Father Sky", and with all nature. All plants are sacred, and when something bad happens to a member of the Diné ("The People", as the Navajo call themselves), it is presumed that they have fallen out of harmony with their world, or surroundings, or unwittingly hurt or damaged some other part of their world. A medicine man, or woman is summoned, usually after a "Handtrembler" (one skilled in ascertaining the cause or the nature of the illness), and a specific prescribed chant, or sing is set up for the healing of the patient. The medicine man may know one or two sings, and has learned themm over many years apprentiship to another or senior medicine man who practiced these rites. There are said to be almost 100 different kinds of sings, most lasting 3 days to 7 days. The entire family helps with food, wood-hauling, water-hauling, and the medicine man usually brings helpers who work with him in drawing a figure on the hogan floor on which the patient will sit while the sing progresses. Many different drawings are involved with each sing, as many as nine can be used in one ritual. At each step of the ceremony, the only person who really can see the entire sandpainting is the medicine man, and each painting is destroyed after the part of the ceremony ends. The colored sands are collected from certain places (kinds of Earth and rock) all over the reservaiton, and after the pictures are destroyed, the sands used to draw them are dispersed in a careful manner. Modern sandpaintings as an artform
Sandpaintings usually have a fixative sprayed on them, but need to be handled carefully so they will not deteroriate. This artform is one based on a religious practice, but to the modern artist, it can be adapted for a saleable item that can also preserve this artform for the world. Recently, Tibetan Monks (who also practice a type of sandpainting to create mandalas for religious purposes) joined with sandpainters in New Mexico and created a peace mandala which was left for a time in an Albuquerque museum. Your sandpaintings have some religious symbols in them but are not true renditions of those used in curing ceremonies. Sandpaintings can be dusted or covered with glass with some space left for the painting to breathe. We hope these pictures will enhance your surroundings and add richness to your life. |
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The Gathering Place © 1996-2006 by The Gathering Place, Thoreau NM. All rights reserved. Designed by Holden Consulting. |
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Today, the Navajo artist uses some of the parts of these drawings, as well as the technique for sandpainting as an artform. Many will not draw certain figures, and some will only draw non-traditional pictures, or figures on pottery, or geometric designs, with the sands they can buy. Some still collect different colors from different places known only to them.