Tours · Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh

Tibetan Prayer Flags above Dharamsala

A hillside near Dharamsala strung with thousands of prayer flags in five colours. What is printed on them, why the colours always come in the same order, and why nobody takes them down.

In this panorama a hillside near Dharamsala is strung so densely with prayer flags that the cloth almost hides the slope. Squares of blue, white, red, green and yellow run between tall deodars and over a patch of bare red earth, under the low clouds of a June day. Every square carries printed prayers, and in Tibetan belief the wind that moves them spreads those blessings over the valley. The custom came to these hills with the Tibetans who followed the Dalai Lama into exile: in May 1960 his administration moved to Dharamsala, and McLeod Ganj above it became the centre of the exile community.

Where did prayer flags come from?

Most accounts trace the flags to Bon, the religion of Tibet before Buddhism, whose followers flew plain flags in primary colours. Printing sacred texts on cloth came from India. The knowledge of printing prayers on cloth had reached Tibet by about 800 CE. The teacher Atisha (980–1054), who arrived in Tibet in 1040, is credited with bringing the Indian practice of printed cloth flags to Tibet and Nepal. During the Cultural Revolution prayer flags were discouraged in Tibet, and many old designs are thought to have been lost with the woodblocks they were printed from.

Lung ta and darchor: two ways to fly a flag

The flags in this panorama are the horizontal kind, called lung ta. The word means ‘wind horse’. The squares are sewn to a long cord along their top edges, and the strings are stretched diagonally between two high points: trees, roofs, poles, the cairns of mountain passes. The second kind, the darchor or darchog (‘flagstaff’), is a single tall rectangle fixed along one edge to a vertical pole planted in the ground or on a roof. The Horniman Museum in London, which holds both types, describes their purpose plainly: to ward off harmful forces and to ask for blessings such as long life, freedom from illness, prosperity and success.

What do the five colours mean?

Flags come in sets of five, one of each colour, and the order is fixed: blue, white, red, green and yellow, from left to right. Each colour stands for an element.

• Blue is the sky and space.
• White is air and wind.
• Red is fire.
• Green is water.
• Yellow is earth.

Traditional Tibetan medicine holds that health comes from the balance of these same five elements, so a full set on the wind is a small picture of a world in balance. Seen from a distance, a long string repeats the five-colour pattern dozens of times, which is why a slope like this one reads as stripes.

What is printed on a prayer flag?

At the centre of a classic lung ta is the wind horse itself, carrying three flaming jewels on its back. The jewels stand for the Buddha, the Dharma (his teaching) and the Sangha (the community of practitioners). In the four corners sit four animals known as the Four Dignities: the garuda, the dragon, the tiger and the snow lion. The space around them is filled with text, in the fullest designs about 400 mantras associated with Padmasambhava, Avalokiteshvara and Manjushri, along with prayers for the long life of the person who puts the flags up. Om mani padme hum, the mantra of Avalokiteshvara, is printed on many of them.

Many flags leave a blank line in the dedication. A museum example in the Horniman collection reads, in translation, ‘May the named, his family and retinue be blessed with longevity, power and prosperity’, with a space for the sponsor’s name.

When are prayer flags hung, and why are they left to fade?

The preferred moment is a sunny morning with a good wind. Tibetan astrology also marks days to avoid. The Tibetan teacher Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a list by the Tibetan lunar calendar: the 10th and 22nd of the first, fifth and ninth months; the 7th and 19th of the second, sixth and tenth; the 4th and 16th of the third, seventh and eleventh; the 1st and 13th of the fourth, eighth and twelfth. Flags hung on those dates, he taught, bring obstacles for as long as they fly. In Tibet the big renewal comes once a year, at Losar, the Tibetan New Year.

Old flags are not taken down when new ones go up. The belief is that the prayers become a permanent part of the universe as the printed images fade in sun, wind and rain, so new strings are tied beside the bleached ones. The overlap of old and new is often read as an image of change accepted. In normal wind a flag lasts two to three years. When one finally falls, it should not be left on the ground or reused as clothing; the usual way to dispose of it is to burn it, and some teachers allow burying.

Seeing prayer flags in McLeod Ganj

In the town itself, flags line the kora, the path that circles Lhagyal Ri, the hill of the Tsuglagkhang complex. The complex holds the main temple, built in 1970, with statues of Shakyamuni Buddha, Avalokiteshvara and Padmasambhava, and the Dalai Lama’s residence, which is closed to visitors. The kora is lined with prayer wheels, small stupas and strings of flags, and pilgrims and local residents walk it as a path of merit. Walk it clockwise, as Tibetans do, and turn the wheels in the same direction.

A few habits keep a visit respectful. Step around fallen flags rather than on them, leave strings where they hang, and if you buy a set to take home, hang it high and in the open.