Please email your comments & questions to geovisual @ comcast.net. Thank you.
Click here to join Friends of Peace Monuments.

17 Peace Monuments Made of Sand


Monuments are permanent by definition, and sand sculptures deteriorate relatively soon, but - hey! - nothing lasts forever, and sand sculptures are "permanent" as long as they last -- same as everything else.

The world's best known sand sculptor appers to be Sudarsan Pattnaik of Puri (India). Similar works have been achieved by Osama Sbeata of Gaza (Palestine).

Click here for "Sand Sculpture Basics."

Right click any image to enlarge.


September? 2010 - "Picasso Dove of Peace," Crosby Beach, near Liverpool (England). By Jamie Wardley & others. "The Sandinyoureye team led 25 Holly Lodge Girls College students in a sand drawing workshop to produce this Picasso Dove of Peace image on Crosby Beach to promote an event at the Liverpool Tate." /// Click here for 1:21 YouTube video showing the making of this sand drawing. ENGLAND 2010 DOVES


September 21, 2013 - "The Fallen 9,000," Normandy Beach (France). "9,000 Fallen Soldiers Etched into the Sand to Commemorate Peace Day. ...British artists Jamie Wardley & Andy Moss accompanied by numerous volunteers, took to the beaches of Normandy with rakes & stencils in hand to etch 9,000 silhouettes representing fallen people into the sand... a stark visual reminder of the civilians, Germans & allied forces who died during the D-Day beach landings at Arromanches on June 6th, 1944, during WWII. The original team consisted of 60 volunteers, but nearly 500 additional local residents arrived to help with the temporary installation that lasted only a few hours before being washed away by the tide." FRANCE PALESTINE 2013

2014 - "BRICS - Strengthening Trust And Mutual Understanding," Puri, Odisha (India). "Indian reputed sand artist Sri Manas Kumar Sahoo has created a sand sculpture at the golden sea-beach (near Light House), Puri, situated at a distance of 65 km, from Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha, to celebrate through his sand art the 6th BRICS summit held in Fortaleza (Brazil). Mr. Sahoo prepared a beautiful sand sculpture to give the message of peace & brotherhood among the BRICS nation [sic], to eliminate poverty & for further economic cooperation for speedy development of the member nations." INDIA 2014 PAKISTAN


2014 - "Worn Out" (Palestine). "Ongoing Nakba memorial MT Iyad Sabbah: Sand sculptures of people fleeing their homes in Gaza [2014]." /// "Iyad Ramadan Sabbah is a Palestinian sculptor born 1973 in Gaza who lives & works there...This exhibition is meant to show the horrors Palestinians faced in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza city, which saw some of the heaviest fighting in the summer’s 50-day conflict (2014). More than 2,200 people were killed, 11,200 civilians were injured & thousands of houses were razed by Israel..." TIBET LA 2015

July 25, 2014 - "Bring Peace," Puri Beach (India). Sand sculputre by Sudarsan Pattnaik? INDIA 2014
January 1, 2015 - "2015," Gaza Strip (Palestine). "Osama Sbeata expressing his hope that 2015 would be Palestine's year of peace." PALESTINE 2015

March 11-15, 2015 - Sand Mandala for World Peace, Tibetan House, 4900 Tchoupitoulas Street, New Orleans, Louisiana (USA). "Tibetan House would like to express deep gratitude for those of you who generously helped with the visit of the Drepung Gomang Monastery monks, as well as everyone who viewed the mandala in its creation & dissolution, and contributed to the Monastery. We are overjoyed with the response. It was heartwarming to observe young & old, & in-between, discover for the first time the mesmerizing beauty & transforming qualities of a Tibetan Buddhist Sand Mandala, as it comes into being & then swept away & offered into the waters. It was truly awe inspiring." LOUISIANA 2015

Date" - "Stop War - Peace," Puri beach, Odisha (India). "Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik's latest work on Puri beach, Odisha for Gaza Peace." INDIA
Date? - "Pray God, Miracles do Happen," Puri Beach (India). Depicts missing Malaysia Airways flight ___ missing over Indian Ocean. Sand sculputre by Sudarsan Pattnaik? INDIA

April 2015 - "In April 2015, Osama Sbeata created a sand sculpture of a famous symbol of peace, the 'peace dove,' and he quickly gained renown." PALESTINE 2015
2015 - 67th Anniversary of the Nakba, Gaza Strip (Palestine). Sand sculpture by Osama Sbeata. PALESTINE 2015 NAKBA

April 2016 - "Sudarsan Pattnaik won the people's choice prize for his sand sculpture titled "Mahatma Gandhi - World Peace" at the ninth Moscow Sand Sculpture Championship 2016." RUSSIA INDIA 2016 GANDHI
December 25, 2016 - "Bring Happiness to the World," Puri (India). "Sudarsan Pattnaik sculpts 1,000 Santa Clauses from beach sand to raise awareness about global happiness." INDIA 2016

Date? - "Stop War on Religion," where? (India). Shows two peace doves carrying suitcases in their beaks & flying in clouds. Sand sculputre by Sudarsan Pattnaik. INDIA DOVES
Date? - "Bring Peace [between Pakistan & India]," where? (India). Sand sculputre by Sudarsan Pattnaik? INDIA PAKISTAN

February 10, 2017 - World Peace Sandcastle, Puri, Odisha (India). "Ditching the small plastic buckets traditionally used for building sandcastles, artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has taken sand art to a whole new level. In a successful Guinness World Records attempt aimed at promoting world peace & raising awareness about the art, Sudarsan built the tallest sandcastle ever on the beach at Puri. The spectacular creation measured a staggering 14.84 metres (48 feet 8 inches) tall & the base had a circumference of 530 feet. The intricate design includes carvings of animals, people, and the words 'world peace.'" /// The height record was exceeded a few weeks later by a 16.68 meter sandcastle in Duisburg (Germany). INDIA 2017

March 2017 - "Osama Sbeata held an exhibition on the Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948, when Palestinians were expelled from their lands & the state of Israel was founded. In the exhibition, which was attended by many Gazans & photographers, Sbeata depicted images of displacement, migration & the suffering of Palestinians during that period." /// "It took Osama Sbeata & his team two days to complete a sand sculpture which marked every major development in Palestinian history. Along the beach, & 75 metres long & four metres wide, sand was brought together to spell out '1948, Nakbha,' 1967, Naksa only to go to mark the First & Second Intifadas & other years which are imprinted on the Palestinian psyche including Israel’s most recent devastating wars on the Gaza Strip in 2014. The creation is thought to be the longest such work in the Arab world." PALESTINE NAKBA 2017