The Wind Horse of the Planet: Lungta's Spiritual Journey
On the summit of the Tibetan Plateau, where snow-capped peaks form an unbroken range and monasteries are wrapped in mist and clouds, the vital energy between heaven and earth is pure and clear. It is here that the wind horse, known as Lungta in Tibetan, makes its home. According to the artist's creative philosophy, the wind horse represents a symbol pointing toward humanity's spiritual dimension. In this watercolor on canvas, techniques of splashing, spraying, and pouring are employed to produce an ethereal, dreamlike effect.
Before Buddhism arrived, Tibet's ancient inhabitants venerated the spirits of the heavens and the earth, paid homage to the deities of mountains and rivers, and held the sun and moon in great reverence. Of all nature spirits, the wind horse was the quickest and most vigorous. Far from being a living being of flesh and blood, it represented life force and prayer. Woven into the human heart, it bore a person's essence, wisdom, and fortune.
As Buddhism spread and prospered across Tibet, the wind horse took on increasingly profound layers of meaning. It was likened to an unseen mount, carried along by the currents of fate. Over time, it became emblematic of the vitality within, bearing goodwill and good fortune while reflecting noble hopes. Devotees inscribed their prayers upon wind horse flags, setting them loose to ripple and drift upon the breeze. Blessings, in turn, blossomed gently wherever these flags found their way.
For the New Year of the Horse, we present this collection, which features wind-horse-themed artworks carefully created by the global art community. As the wind horse galloped and danced upon the wind, it delivered prayers from all directions while also laying bare the inner landscape of the human heart—portraying the peaks of one's spirit and the fluctuations of well-being.
Through these visuals, we encourage our audience to contemplate the wind horse's shape and connect with its spiritual significance as shown in various art forms worldwide. While certain works remain rooted in Tibetan tradition and preserve the symbol's original meaning with care, others use its form and essence to explore themes of liberty and spiritual fortitude. Additionally, we take this moment to extend our blessings via the wind horse.
This well-known series of wind horse works, created by the Russian artist Nicholas Roerich, stands as a notable example of his Symbolist and spiritual style. Within the imagery, the wind horse carries the wish-fulfilling jewel upon its back. As the new year gets underway, we hope that every ambition is realized and that all undertakings and routes run without hindrance. Through the wind horse's energetic movement, may everything beautiful come our way.
Roerich repeatedly explored the significant theme of a wind horse (Lung Ta) carrying the wish-fulfilling jewel on its back, radiating a divine, dazzling light, while walking through a bright, vibrant, and highly stylized panoramic Himalayan landscape. This theme surfaced after he completed his Central Asian expedition, and the resulting works use magnificent colors to amplify the mythical atmosphere and spiritual power they contain.
Within Roerich's visual art, the wind horse frequently appears bearing three jewels surrounded by intense flames—these "Three Jewels" represent the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. As a wish-carrying steed, it serves as a spiritual anchor. Meanwhile, British contemporary artist Adrian Novac has earned worldwide recognition through his surrealist oil paintings. A number of his pieces possess an air of mystery and aloofness, generating a strong atmosphere.
In the artwork "Lungta," the wind horse represents both the horse's energy and the wind's speed. It is seen as a mount that carries prayers, letting the inner voices of people rise with the air currents toward the celestial realm. As for its deeper significance, the wind horse stands for righteous force. Drawing on vitality, auspicious signs, and the power of fate, it forms a basis for safeguarding. Moreover, it serves as spiritual guidance along the journey toward wisdom and enlightenment.
Horse imagery has long been the central focus of Mongolian artist Solongo Ch's creative work. In the cultures and identity of grassland peoples, the horse symbolizes speed, endurance, and freedom. Through blue tones and transparency, the entire painting achieves an ethereal, profound quality that gives off a strong, instinctual appeal. It vividly conveys the artist's modern rendering of this traditional Tibetan spiritual imagery. Her galloping horses, like clouds, ceaselessly renew life.
The horse-themed series by Solongo Ch stands as a complete manifestation of this spirit. It draws on the visual traditions of grassland culture while integrating a vivid, modern palette, a combination frequently cited as the artist's signature style. In these pieces, highly stylized horses are depicted in groups, galloping through swirling cloud patterns that carry connotations of good fortune, all rendered in a diverse spectrum of hues. These dynamic arrangements exude a strong sense of energy and rhythmic momentum.
Contemporary artist Pema Gyeltshen from Thimphu maintains a passion and reverence for diverse art forms, with a wide range of creative themes. In his works, prayer flags flutter, horses leap, and auspicious light circulates. As Solongo Ch says, "Everything will be okay. Things never stay the same forever. The sun will rise." Through her creations, she fully expresses the spirit and surging vitality of the steppes. May people's lives be like her artworks: colorful, full of vitality, and filled with auspicious energy.
In his artistic practice, the wind horse motif holds a central position. His subjects span religion, traditional culture, everyday existence, abstract expression, and personal calligraphic works. His preferred materials are acrylic and watercolor. While he holds traditional techniques in high regard, he continually pushes the boundaries of his creativity. Alongside a steadfast dedication to artistic excellence, he persistently pursues novel breakthroughs and fresh possibilities.
Having been steeped in Buddhism from an early age, the artist holds the wind horse’s spiritual significance in high regard. This symbol stands not only for an individual’s capacity to develop spiritually but also for the strength to meet life’s difficulties calmly and resiliently. The wind horse finds one of its most beautiful expressions in the five-colored prayer flags, where every hue on those cloth banners, as they flutter in the breeze, represents a distinct element.
Born into a family with a five-generation legacy of Thangka art, Nepalese artist Tenzin Norbu creates wind horse banners adorned with auspicious patterns, symbols, and scriptures, alongside the image of the wind horse carrying the wish-fulfilling jewel. As these flags flutter in the breeze, they carry blessings and prayers outward. Through upright conduct, the wind horse rises high.
In this wind horse themed artwork, a herd of horses gallops freely in the most powerful posture, symbolizing people moving forward fearlessly with clear and positive energy. His deep mastery of traditional Tibetan Thangka, along with the beautiful, fresh, serene, and pure mountain landscapes of his hometown, forms the wellspring of his creative inspiration.
Should a person cherish virtue, adhere to truth, choose the right course, preserve a spotless mind, and remain brave in heart, the wind horse will ascend with that energy and ride the breeze. Naturally, wherever it goes, blessings and fortune accompany it. Gyempo Wangchuk Carry goodness aloft on the wind horse, See the heart clearly through wisdom's light.
At the National Institute of Zorig Chusum (Arts and Crafts) in Bhutan, artist Gyempo Wangchuk underwent a six-year specialized training program in Lhadri traditional painting. His background in traditional art includes creating murals for monasteries and dzongs (fortresses), as well as painting thangka scrolls. In the artwork "Hope," the heart's wind horse, carrying the wish-fulfilling jewel, treads on auspicious clouds as it travels along the enlightenment path.
Anatoly Tsydenov, a Buryat artist, centers his creative themes closely on mythological narratives and the daily life of the Buryat people. Through this, his wish is conveyed: that a clear and bright awareness illuminate the inner direction, goodwill become a continuously flowing energy, and the upward force spread far with the wind, reaching a wider world. One returns to the mind's original purity and openness during this continuous journey. Anatoly Tsydenov Carried by mindfulness, entrusted with auspiciousness.
His works carry a gentle, good-natured humor while making full use of Buryat painting's delicate techniques and stylistic qualities. In his wind horse themed pieces, the animal leaps and soars through colorful clouds and mountains, generating a dynamic spatial effect. Either galloping side by side or encircled by the twelve zodiac animals, the wind horses represent the passage of time and the harmonious order of the universe.
The painting captures a white horse in full gallop across an expansive plateau, rendered by Tiia Talvisara with brushstrokes that feel spontaneous and untamed. A brown eagle keeps pace above, tracing circles in the sky. Through this scene, the idea emerges that the wind horse carries good fortune, borne along by mindful awareness. When applied to contemplative practice, this imagery awakens an inner vitality, guiding the mind naturally toward clarity and uplift. The work, titled "Windhorse," reflects the harmony of all living things moving in their own rhythm.
Snow-covered summits and winding waterways extend toward the horizon, crafting a broad, ever-shifting panorama. The white horse's swiftness and purity mirror the radiance found within human vitality. Creatures caught mid-gallop blend into the cadence of the universe, evoking a tranquil, balanced, and profound kinship between people and the natural world. Vivid, luminous hues interweave with the open expanse, unveiling a vision of life thriving and unfurling freely across the land.
Shashi Bikram Shah is recognized as a "living legend" within the realm of contemporary Nepali art. His most iconic and defining subject matter consists of horses—depicted in states of galloping, racing, and high tension. Employing vivid colors and dynamic rhythms, he channels the animal's immense vitality into his work. The celestial horse, he suggests, cleanses impurity as dust, while both thoughts and actions travel far. His much-admired artistic strength lies in sustaining this powerful energy across his creations without ever lapsing into repetition or dullness.
The horses in the image, ranging in size and color, rush onward in a rhythm that feels both natural and ordered, symbolizing human feelings, inner states, and unbounded imagination. Gazing at them quietly evokes a lively carnival, where one dances and moves together with thousands of horses. This kind of liberating encounter, freed from weariness and stiffness, lets the viewer's spirit regain wholeness through joy and carry on along a deeper, more enduring path in life.
In Shashi Shah's work, the horse functions as a powerful symbol, frequently read as a reference to Vishnu's Kalki avatar. Classical scriptures describe how Vishnu, as his tenth avatar, Kalki, will appear when dharma is on the point of failing in the world. Armed with a sword and mounted on a white horse, he will defeat evil and reestablish cosmic order. That white horse signifies the swift and pure divine force that marks the close of the old age and the start of a new golden era. Shashi Shah's visual language is therefore deeply symbolic in nature.
The energy of this very moment is the wind horse; only in the present can our innate goodness be truly felt. —Sakyong Mipham. As free as the wind, the spirit horse soars. The large-scale wind horse installation created by the German Pantao Theatre, which resembles mythical spirit horses, is made from lightweight materials, held high on long poles, and manipulated by trained performers using exquisite and vivid techniques.