Everything in the Kalachakra mandala is a representation of some aspect of the deity and the universe. The word kalachakra means cycles of time (Wheel of Time). The Kalachakra Tantra consists of three such cycles.
1. External (laws of time and space, macrocosmos),
2. Internal (the elements and structure of the human body, micro-cosmos) and
3. Alternative (the doctrine of the meditational deity and its mandala, liberation).
Mandala’s in Tibet are often made of colored sand and later destroyed as a lesson about the impermanence of life. Believers use the painstaking creation of the sand-mandala as an exercise to visualize, in meditation and reality, the steps along the ‘Path of Enlightenment’.
The mandala found its expression in architecture, in particular in relation with the ground plan. The tetradic ground plan became the messenger of an ideal representation of building-in-general (the universe). The four-fold was lifted from its earthly dimensions into a cosmic awareness.
The Tibetan sanctuary of Samye Gompa, founded around 800 AD by King Tresong Detsen and guru Padmasambhava, is an example of the mixture of a mandala and a tetradic design (fig. 134). The central temple represents Mount Meru, while the surrounding temples are visualizations of the oceans and continents that encircle the sacred mountain.