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| The kids and I have taken a liking to Tibetan Prayer Flags. We found blank ones for sale here:
Dharma Shop
You can write your own prayer/blessing and display it somewhere meaningful. We really loved that idea, so we're planning on putting ours high up in our garden this summer.
Just thought I'd share this little find in case anyone (especially anyone with kids, since kids dig stuff like this) would like to make custom prayer flags of their own. |
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| what a wonderful idea! Thanks for sharing! |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
 
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Hey Lori,
Do you know what a Tibetan Prayer Flag is and what they are used for??
The Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Flags are also called Windhorse Flags. They are used to raise the energy (aka, windhorse) in the area that they are used. The Tibetans put prayer mantra's...like Om Mani Padme Hum, or Om Dare Du Dare Dare So Ha - which is the Green Tara Diety Mantra. There are so many variations of different kinds of mantras..kinda like with Hinduism. If you hang them outside in your garden, just make sure they are connected to your house in some way...like make the string be connected to the corner of the house from the roof. Monday's and Fridays are usually good days to Hang Prayer Flags, but you should check a Tibetan Calendar for the best and/or auspicious times.
Have fun with this. My neighbors used to think my house was a barbeque joint...I had them all around the perimeter of my house...I just recently took them down and have them hanging from a tree to the corner of the roof. So, make sure the flags are attached to nature and your house..that is real important.
You should explain to your kids the meaning of the windhorse...that is real important to Tibetan culture and the prayer flags. Mine have horses on them. I also have a huge Tibetan Flag on my front porch wall. It is the most beautiful flag in the world, with the 2 snow lions. One of my Sherpa friends brought it back from Nepal. I'll see if I can attach the Tibetan Flag to this post. Take care and have fun. If you need information or have questions about these flags, let me know, I have many Tibetan friends that know the answers to their culture ways.
Edited by Cyndi 2006-02-17 11:17 PM
 (Tibetan National Flag.gif)
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 Tibetan National Flag.gif (12KB - 204 downloads)
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| Thanks, Cyndi. 
I read up on them because I thought they were so beautiful. The explanation my daughters love is that when the wind blows, it multiplies the blessings and then carries them off into the world. Is that just a simpler explanation, or a slight variation of of what you said?
I know the colors have meaning as well, but I didn't know certain days were preferred (then again, who doesn't like Friday?!  ).
Thank you again for offering to answer questions. I try to cross reference what I find on the net, but one never knows for sure what's BS and what isn't. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | An article I found regarding Windhorse, or Lung Ta. Also, you should check out any pictures of Mt. Everest. All around the mountain, the base camps and the top, these flags are everywhere. When I get ready to die, I would love to be able to walk up Mt. Everest and never return....to me, that would be the ultimate death!! The other way is to have Satyam scatter my ashes in the Gange River by the temple priests.
Today I was requested to talk about the meaning of prayer flags, known as the "wind horse" or Lung Ta. So I will explain it briefly here. Although it isn't necessary to know the meaning of prayer flags when you offer them, you will gain more benefit through developing faith and trust in them. For that you need to know what Lung Ta are, what they do, and what they represent.
In general there are two different kinds of prayer flag called, in Tibetan, Lung Ta & Jur Dar. Both are printed on cloth and are sewn on to a string, or are placed on a pole and put in a high place like a flag.
There is a third way that was practiced by people who couldn't afford the cloth to print the prayer flag. They would print them onto paper and then throw them into the air from very high places. But in Tibet the high places were untouched land so the paper prayer flags would stay in the snow and naturally disintegrate there. There was no danger of the paper prayer-flags being stepped on, driven over, etc. because if they were then there would be negative karma for both the donor and the passer-by.
Both Lung Ta & Jur Dar are prayers. The prayer-flags are blown by the wind. The air carries the blessing of the prayer printed on the cloth, so the wind becomes blessed. Wherever the wind goes, the beings who breathe it, live in it, receive the blessings of the prayers. That's the general purpose of the prayer-flag and in that way you can say that the prayer is carried by the horse of the wind.
Lung Ta and Jur Dar, though different, are based on one principle. In people's life there are four things that make one successful; 1) long life, 2) merit, 3) power, and 4) luck. Prayer-flags increase and maintain the four. We loose them because of the negative things that we do or through being involved in a negative environment.
The Difference between Lung Ta & Jur Dar
Lung Ta are mainly offered to increase peoples spirit, success and luck. Improving the spirit, improving the success, improving the luck. When somebody attempts something and it does not work or fails many times, then we say that person's lung ta is down. With another person everything works without obstacles, very successful and easy, then we say that person's lung ta is up.
Lung Ta normally have a horse in the middle, and in the 4 corners are the four majestic mystical animals; the snow-lion, garuda, dragon & tiger. Which represent the four human and four heavenly qualities of a majestic human being.
Jur Dar are made to increase merit. Often they are offered on behalf of beings who have died or who are sick. So the form that Jur Dar flags take are texts such as the Liberation Sutra, mantras like ~ Om Mani Peme Hung ~ for increasing merit, or long-life prayers for increasing lifespan. We offer them annually to increase our personal stock of merit.
Jur Dar have prayers or mantras printed on them. No images of animals or birds, only Tibetan text. It is absolutely prayer and it is not for success, nor for any of these worldly aspects of qualities. Jur Dar is purely sending the prayer through the wind to repeat it constantly. So however much wind blows on the prayer that is like how much the prayer is repeated by the wind. So that is carried, and blessed and fills the environment.
So although they may superficially look the same - they are different and their motivations are slightly different.
Prayer flags are cloth printed with formulas of mantra designed to benefit beings in different ways, such as removing obstacles, granting long life, giving good fortune, and so on. They can be blue, white, red, yellow or green. People may put up prayer flags of the five colours alternating or of only one colour - according to the astrologer's recommendations.
As the wind blows the prayers are carried into the environment and any beings that meet the air or breathe in that air are blessed.
In Sherab Ling there are 15ft prayer flag poles that run beside the stupas, and prayer flags can be seen there and also at the monks retreat centre.
Edited by Cyndi 2006-02-18 10:30 AM
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| Thanks for the explaination Cyndi, I might consider getting some now.
For the record, most of tibet is covered in representations of the various mantras. I saw a guy give a presentation for snow caving in the himilayas, and just about every rock, out cropping, or stone was covered in tibetan script. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
 
Location: A Blue State |
I got some prayer flags for Xmas --- yes, we follow the pagan custom of
celebrating shortly after the Solstice --- they hang in the place where I do yoga,
and they help me focus in Ardha Chandrasana (that's the Iyengar, not the Bikram,
version of the pose).
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | The other day I received a set of "mini" Windhorse Tibetan Flags from Richard Gere and the HH Dalai Lama's Int'l Campaign for Tibet...in fact, I got 2 sets because they send me stuff at another address. They are so cute, only 2x2.
Anyway, that's funny that we are talking about this and my new flags arrived in the mail, COOL,
BG, I'm brainlocked here...how does one do yoga better with a set of prayer flags??
Now, I do have the Chakra symbols on a wall hanging in my yoga room, along with an ancient Tibetan Wall Hanging of Buddha, but not sure if anyone in particular helps my practice or not - Buddha just sits there and stares at me  Perhaps I will hang one of my new sets of Windhorse flags along the mirror for motivation....maybe it will raise my Windhorse to do more Hot/Bikram yoga, 
Edited by Cyndi 2006-02-20 9:12 AM
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State |
The flags help by giving me something specific to focus on while I'm
balancing to enter the pose, before I turn my head toward the ceiling.
I think that mine may be the same paper 2x2's as yours!
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Tibetan Prayer Flags
