In what she describes as a life-changing event, Dianne Hoffman watched monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in South India create a Mandala Sand and perform sacred music and dances in Munster eight years ago.

"My sister said let's go see them," recalls Hoffman, who lives in Hammond.

Mandala Sand sculptures are unlike the typical beach creations we all know. Myriad colored grains of sand are used to create an intricate pattern that is built on a flat platform in a ceremony that takes days, sometimes weeks.

Hoffman was so entranced by what she saw that she returned every day the Tibetan monks were in the area.

Watching the Mandala's ongoing creation, Hoffman felt a connection with these holy men and their culture.

"A Sand Mandala is a symbol of a building where a particular deity lives and when they finish making the Mandala, they do a ceremony and then sweep up the sand and pour it into a river," Hoffman says.

When the monks were getting ready to leave, Hoffman remembers crying and promising them the next time they saw her, it would be in her home.

"When I returned home, I called the Mystical Arts of Tibet in Atlanta and asked to be put on their host list," Hoffman says.

Since then, she has been hosting monks, often in groups of 10 to 12, at her home.

"Sometimes they stay three or four days, sometimes just one night," Hoffman says.

"The longest was about 10 days. Usually when they come, we'll go to the grocery store together and buy food, and we'll cook everything from scratch. I've learned to love Tibetan food, which is definitely unique, a mix between Indian and Asian."

Hoffman describes the monks who stayed with her and her family as "the kindest-hearted people on this earth."

Over the years, she has established deep relationships with the monks and their culture, and when their new temple in Drepung Loseling was completed, she happily accepted an invitation to travel to Mundgod, Karnataka, in South India. There, she attended the inauguration of the temple and also to see one of the monks she befriended receive an advanced degree at a graduation ceremony.

"The temple took four years to build," Hoffman says.

Photos she took show an enormous and elaborately painted and decorated temple with many sweeping arcs and angles.

The inauguration was scheduled for Jan. 7 of this year, and Hoffman arrived on Dec. 30. Her son and his fianceé came the following week. And though they were in an entirely different culture, they felt completely accepted.

"We were welcomed with open arms by everyone in the monastery," she says.

"There was so much excitement in the air."

His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived to give his blessing to the temple and that was followed by 10 days of teachings. According to Hoffman, approximately 50,000 people attended these events.

"The night before the inauguration, the monks came to request that my family be ready early in the morning," Hoffman writes in an account she kept of her odyssey.

"We were up early and eagerly waiting for our escort. To our surprise and amazement, we were seated at the altar with His Holiness."

The travelers from Lake County found themselves sitting with reincarnated lamas, abbots and many other high lamas from Drepung as well as other monasteries in India.

"The temple was filled to capacity with thousands of people sitting outside," says Hoffman, who notes that everyone shared butter tea and ceremonial rice.

"As HH left the temple, he passed by us touching our hands."

Following the inauguration, Hoffman stayed to watch Pasang Dukdak, one of the monks she knew, receive his Geshe Llaram degree, which she describes as the equivalent to a doctorate in Buddhist philosophy.

"When I met him in 2001, I told him that I would be there for his graduation," she says.

Hoffman says she was lucky her employer, Northern Trust in Chicago, gave her a two-month leave of absence and that her husband was supportive of her traveling to India.

"He went to work and paid the bills," she says.

Even after spending two months away from home, Hoffman says she was sad to leave.

"I had become so connected with all the monks, so comfortable with my surroundings and so happy there," she says.

"Of course I cried. I know that I have a home there whenever I was to go back. And I will go back."

In the meantime, Hoffman keeps busy at the TIBETcenter in Chicago where she is helping with the performance of Dance and Music from the Roof of the World that will be held on Sept. 27. She also is looking forward to the Tibet Film Festival, scheduled for Oct. 19-25 to be held at various locations in the Chicago area.

Hoffman's sister lives in Bloomington, Ind., which also has a Tibetan center and, so, every time she goes down to visit, she stops at the monastery there and eats at a restaurant called Little Tibet.