For Hillary Zaken, Elon’s sand mandala tradition is an important piece of starting the fall semester. The Green Tara sand mandala is created by Geshe Palden Sangpo, a Tibetan Buddhist monk of the Kadampa Center in Raleigh. Sangpo began working on the design Sept. 11 and will finish – and destroy – the mandala at 3 p.m. Sept. 13 in the Numen Lumen Pavilion.