Blockprints: Prayer Flags Description
Prayer FlagsPrayer Flags Description, Part 1:
A prayer flag is a printed image on paper or cloth intended to be thrown into the wind or fixed wherever the wind blows. The flags often contain images of animals, deities, or auspicious inscriptions. Prayer flags are common in the popular cultures of both Buddhist and Bon religions. The origins of Tibetan prayer flags are attributed to the Bon religion, but are likely an adaptation from an earlier Chinese culture that was based in the Xining region of Qinghai province in western China.
Chinese prints were made from carved woodblocks and typically depicted a single figure of an animal per print. The early Bon prayer flags, also printed from woodblocks, depicted five animals per print: a horse (known as the “wind horse”) at the center, and in the four corners of the flag, bird, dragon, lion, and tiger, without any inscriptions or special words. The special group of five animals are thought to relate to five early clan families of the Tibetan plateau.
The Buddhists of India had no such prayer flag tradition, but they did have prayer banners containing short sutras or long dharani formulas. In Tibet, the new Buddhists used the indigenous system of the five basic animals and then added their own sacred texts. Later Buddhists would substitute popular figures or deities for the wind horse in the middle of the flag, yet keep the four animals in the corners. Over the years, an endless varieties of prayer flags developed with both Buddhist and Bon religious designs. Popular deities adorned an endless number of specially designed flags.
Traditional wind horse prayer flags must include the five animals, with the horse at the center, though the four supporting animals might be represented in written word rather than image. Traditionally, it’s thought that it is the horse that rides the wind and carries the auspicious wishes and prayers to the world. Although the most traditional prayer flags adhere to orthodox styles, there are actually very few overarching rules. This has encouraged a tremendous amount of creativity and variation in style. (See Tricycle Magazine Himalayan Buddhist Art 101: Prayer Flags, Part 1).
Jeff Watt, April 11th 2013
Prayer Flags Description, Part 2:
Prayer Flags in Tibet are called lungta (“wind horse”). Traditionally, the flags would always be recognizable by the drawings of a horse at the center of the composition surrounded by four other animals—a lion, tiger, bird, and dragon. Many modern prayer flags have, however, replaced the horse with other subjects, such as popular deities and teachers like Padmasambhava. One very popular example is the prayer flag depicting the quasi-mythical Tibetan hero King Gesar. The newer personalized flags generally retain the four surrounding animals in the four corners—sometimes by their written names instead of images.
The identities of the four animals have not always been consistent. On early Bon prayer flags, a white yak was counted as one of the four. In addition, the bird depicted on Buddhist flags is believed to be a garuda, which has its origins in Indian culture and literature, while the bird image on Bon flags has a different meaning and history. These are all minor cultural differences.
Buddhist prayer flags are generally amalgams of Indian Buddhist banners and Tibetan lungta. Chief among Buddhist texts displayed on the Indian banners, and now on Tibetan prayer flags, is the long dharani, a string of letters or syllables very similar to a mantra, of the wrathful female deity Dvajagrakeyura. She is an emanation, or creation, of the Buddha, just like the long-life goddess Ushnishavijaya, who was born from a ray of light emanating from the ushnisha atop the Buddha’s head.
The tantric source literature of Dvajagrakeyua explains the importance of creating banners and displaying the long dharani—composed of several hundred syllables—for the benefit of all. Despite the lengthiness of the text, the prayer flag still fits the four animals in the corners and sometimes even retains a small image of the wind horse at the center of the composition.
The wind horse together with the group of four animals was certainly the earliest form of a prayer flag as we recognize it today. Perhaps the concept of a wind horse that spreads good wishes by currents of air was just too big an idea to be constrained by a single fixed formula or design. The prayer flag has very quickly traveled and adapted to different continents and cultures, becoming more and more a universal symbol for happiness and peace. (See Tricycle Magazine Himalayan Buddhist Art 101: Prayer Flags, Part 2).
Jeff Watt, April 18th 2013
