About the Prayer Flags

Types of Flags

There are several types of Tibetan flags but they all generally come under 2 broad categories.

1. Dar-ding - These are long strings of flags hoisted horizontally between trees or pillars with five colored flags kept in a sequence. First comes the Yellow, followed by Green, Red, White and Blue.
2. Darchen - These are narrow flags flown vertically on a pole and can be hoisted outside houses.

Flag Hoisting in Tibetan Culture

Flags are flown on important occasions like 3rd day of Tibetan New Year "Losar", Marriages and official functions. People belonging to all classes and background fly them. Prayer flags are also hoisted at times of illness and while traveling to avert misfortunes.

Originally, flag ceremonies were intended to provide benefit in this life, but as they gradually became more imbued with religious meanings, they came to be associated with benefits in future lives and achievement of spiritual enlightenment as opposed to material success.

Rituals Involved while Hoisting Flags

The prayer flag hoisting is accompanied by various rituals and the most important of them being the Incense offering.

The Incense offering should be done in the morning on a clean and elevated outdoor site, free of insects, either on a hill or the top of a house. The incense should be burned in a large urn-shaped burner (sang-khun), along with the essence Tsampa, butter, sugar, and medicinal plants.

Then the actual hoisting of the prayer flags is done. They are either hung horizontally across trees or vertically on poles depending on the type of the flag.

The flag hoisters then meditate on the four immeasurable wishes - love, compassion, joy and equanimity and visualize themselves as deities.

The offering ends with the practitioners asking the deities to forgive them for any mistakes in the performance of the ritual, such as improperly or incompletely reciting the words of the text. The deities are then asked to return to their abodes and auspicious verses are recited.

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