Tibetan Prayer Flags

A Brief Introduction to Tibetan Prayer Flags

Tibetan Prayer Flags are a unique landscape on the Tibetan Plateau. During your Tibet tour, you can see the colorful Prayer Flags here and there. Tibetan Prayer Flags are made of cloth, cambric, silk, or handmade paper. Tibetans print the Sutra mantras and other images on the cloth, cambric, silk, and handmade papers. Then Tibetan Prayer Flags are ready. These flags are always in the shapes of squares, triangles or strips. People then fasten these flags on the doors or the trees. Between the earth and the heaven are the branches of colorful Prayer Flags full of Tibetan Sutra mantras, scriptures, images of Buddha figures and mascots. Tibetan Prayer Flags are not only a carrier of Tibetan Buddhism but also an outstanding artwork.

Origin of Tibetan Prayer Flags

Tibetan Prayer Flags is also called Wind-Horse Flags. In Tibetan, it is called "Longdar". "Long" means wind in Tibetan and "dar" means horse. Obviously, Wind-Horse Flag is the literal translation. Tibetan Prayer Flags originate from a kind of primitive sacrificial culture, that is, from the worship to the spirits of animals. The original Longdar (Wind and Horse) was directly the fleece hung on the branches or grasses.

In the primitive Tibetan religion, people believe that the mountain deity is the local protector who blesses the security of one area. Therefore, the local people plant Longdar to show their respects and worships to the mountain deitiy.

Three Types of Tibetan Prayer Flags

As far as the outer looks of Tibetan Prayer Flags are concerned, Tibetan Prayer Flags can be classified into three categories.

The first type of Tibetan Prayer Flags is printed with Buddhism doctrines and patterns of birds or animals. This kind of Tibetan Prayer Flags is blue, white, red, green or yellow, in the shape of square, and is always sewed on a long rope and then hung between tops of two mountains. This kind of Tibetan Prayer Flags can be seen on the mountains where are sparsely populated.

The second type of Tibetan Prayer Flags is a strip with a length of three or five meters. It is always in a single color-single red, single white, single blue or single green. Doctrines of Buddhism are also printed on the surface of it. One side of the strip is sewed on a thick and long pole and is then planted in the courtyards. This kind of Tibetan Prayer Flags can always been seen in the Gongbulinqu area.

The third type of Tibetan Prayer Flags consists of five streamers in the color of blue, white, red, green and red with no words or patterns on it and one single-color square-shaped cloth with the Buddhist doctrines and patterns of birds and animals. This kind of Tibetan Prayer Flags is always hung on the branches of willow trees. It can be seen on the roofs of the residential buildings of ancient Lhasa town.