© Penelope Gan – All Rights Reserved – Rohtang Pass, Himachal Pradesh, INDIA
Luang Ta. It ‘carries’ the ‘Wish Fulfilling Jewel of Enlightenment’. Hence, it is the most prevalent prayer flag flown.
Found strung along mountain ridges and peaks high in the Himalayas to bless the surroundings, prayer flags is apparently unknown in other branches of Buddhism and thus is believed to have originated with Bon, which predates Buddhism in Tibet.
Traditionally, flown to promote peace, compassion, strength and wisdom, these plain coloured plain cloth flags were also used by Shamanistic Bonpo priests in healing ceremonies with each colour corresponding to different primary element of earth, water, fire and space – the fundamental building blocks of both our physical bodies and our environment.
Coloured flags were also used to help appease the local gods and spirits of mountains, valleys, lakes, streams and sea, which when provoked were thought to cause natural disaster and disease. It was said that by balancing the outer elements and propitiating the elemental spirits with rituals and offerings, the Bonpo were able to pacify mother nature and invoke the blessings of the Gods.
Although no records are available to ascertain if the Bonpos ever wrote words on their coloured flags, as the pre-Buddhist religion was of oral traditions and writing was limited to government affairs, it is believed that the Bonpos painted sacred symbols of them; some of which are present on today’s Tibetan coloured prayer flags that has been enhanced with deeper significance of the Vajrayana Buddhist philosophy.
However, since China’s Cultural Revolution and its invasion of Tibet which saw the destruction of pretty much everything related to Tibetan religion and culture, many traditional designs, like the solid wooden woodblocks of designs that weighed many pounds were turned into firewood by the Chinese troops. Relying on designs etched in their minds of the refugees that made it across the Himalayas, most of the traditional prayer flags today are made in Nepal or India by Tibetans refugees or Nepali Buddhist who resides at the Tibetan border regions.
The centre of a prayer flag typically features a ‘Ta‘ (powerful or strong horse) bearing three flaming jewels on its back. The ‘Ta‘ is said to be a symbol of speed and transformation of bad fortune to good fortune. The three flaming jewels symbolises Buddha, the Dharma (Buddhist teachings) and the Sangha (Buddhist community), which is the three pillars of Tibetan philosophical tradition. Around the ‘Ta’ are a few hundred mantras (religious utterances), with each mantra dedicated to a particular deity. The mantras will vary and are from three great Buddhist Bodhisattvas: Avalokitesvara(the bodhisattva of compassion and the patron of the Tibetans), Padmasambhava and Manjusri.
Other than mantras, some prayer flags include prayers for long life and food fortune of the person who mounts the flag; slightly deviating from its original tradition of promoting peace, compassion, strength and wisdom for the collective whole rather than ‘carrying’ prayers to the Gods for oneself.
{shrug}
Just as life renews and reinvent itself, so too must religion with the focus of ‘continuity’… for those that continues to raise the wind horse, they renew their hopes while acknowledging their existence as part of a greater ongoing cycle.
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