The Wind Horse Flag: Sacred Blessings in Foreign Museums
In discussions of prayer flags, a depth beyond the physical artifact itself—an embodied philosophy and a field of spatial meaning—emerges from concealment. As Hugh Edward Richardson (1905–2001) expressed in his biography: *"Those commemorative flags symbolize the people's understanding of their relationship with the universe, and my guides seemed to take great joy in seeing these Himalayan prints."*
A closer look at prayer flags suggests that the commonly used Tibetan designation, "རླུང་རྟ་" (lungta), may reflect only the most outward layer of their historical evolution, fusing an earlier meaning with vivid imagery featuring the central horse and four directional animals. The Chinese expression "风马旗" (fēng mǎ qí), which translates this Tibetan term, carries the additional sense of "flag.
The term "ཀླུང་རྟ་" (klungta) is what older texts use for prayer flags. Its first character, "ཀླུང་" (klung), must not be read merely as an alternative spelling of "wind" or simply as a reference to the "wind element" among the five elements. In earlier indigenous religious writings, "ཀླུང་" (klung) typically denoted a particular locality—such as a river or farmland—or, more precisely, a collective: a river as a collection of water, farmland as a collection of earth.
Similarly, the way a core meaning radiates outward—allowing other meanings of the same word to appear within its interpretive framework—is a notable feature of Tibetan lexical usage. The character "རྟ་" (ta), commonly taken as "horse," did not originally designate that animal. Its meanings are abundant and varied, extending well beyond the usual rendering, and can include such things as tonal pitch in chanting or medicinal adjuvants (as in "སྨན་རྟ་," sman ta).
Take "རྟ་" as an example: in the context of prayer flags, its original meaning was "means or instrument"—for instance, "སྨན་རྟ་" as a medicinal catalyst, or "ལས་རྟ་" in Bon texts as ritual aids. Subsequently, however, the association with melodic tones arose from a conceptual connection between the flow of sound and the celestial horse, and the horse's literal depiction came to be used in woodblock prints for prayer flags, as historian Professor Namkha Norbu [ནམ་མཁའ་ནོར་བུ་] details in his works.
The collective that prayer flags help is the elemental field—the assemblage of elements (འབྱུང་བ་). With that in mind, their true meaning becomes far clearer: these are not just horse-centered banners fluttering in the wind, but a way to assist that particular collective through flags. To see why the elements carried such deep significance for the snowland’s early inhabitants, one must look to the traditional calendric system, which is founded on elemental theory.
Tonpa Shenrab (སྟོན་པ་གཤེན་རབ་), the spiritual founder and master, is the one to whom the complete interpretation of elemental calendrics is traced back, as stated in traditional Bon scriptures.
Tonpa Shenrab responded to an inquiry from his son, the calendrical master Seu Kongtrul Chung (ཟེའུ་ཀོང་འཕྲུལ་ཆུང་), concerning the method of elemental calendrics by explaining that every material thing is constituted of particles (རྡུལ་ཕྲན་), and it is the elements (འབྱུང་བ་) which enable those particles to operate within matter. These elements are generally sorted into four broad types: earth, water, fire, and wind (ས་ཆུ་མེ་རླུང་).
In general, these elements exist in harmony, following a natural order. The earth element shapes all matter, the water element gathers energy into a cohesive state, the fire element brings about fruition, and the wind element drives growth and cyclical change. Over time, however, adverse interactions among the elements may emerge, leading to the decomposition of matter (*"The Science of Prognostic Calendrics,"* སྣང་མཐོང་རྩིས་ཀྱི་རིག་པ་).
When questioned about how elemental calendrics function, Tonpa Shenrab replied: "By investigating the interrelations among the outer environment, the twelve months, the four seasons, and the configurations of constellations, cosmic shifts become apparent—and these shifts form the natural order (རྟོགས་བྱེད་). Through that order, people come to recognize how outward pursuits such as farming and herding are linked to inward elemental changes, whether beneficial or harmful.
How should prayer flags be interpreted? Despite having pronounced mytho-historical traits—a narrative pattern typical of sacred histories—this account of calendrical knowledge's origin nonetheless exposes why elements were so critical to Tibetan life, and thus why prayer flags emerged and evolved as they did. Those relationships, in turn, direct individuals to elemental healing and harmonization methods tailored to their needs* (*"The Wheel of Elemental Time," འབྱུང་བ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་).
With the link between prayer flags and elemental theory now made clear, two questions persist: what accounts for the grouping of the elements into fives in prayer flags, and in what visual manner are these five elements depicted?
The computational methods for elemental calendrics and astrological calculations are substantially different. In elemental calendrics, the five elements are earth, water, fire, wind, and space (ས་ཆུ་མེ་རླུང་ནམ་མཁའ་), where "space" signifies both the sky and emptiness. For astrological calculations, however, the fixed sequence is wood, fire, earth, iron, and water (ཤིང་མེ་ས་ལྕགས་ཆུ་); the ordering "metal, wood, water, fire, earth" is not part of Himalayan calendrical systems.
When it comes to prayer flags, two distinct elemental groupings exist simultaneously. The calendrical set signifies how the elements interact within a person, indicating either balance or imbalance, whereas the astrological set reveals their relationship with the surrounding environment. Notably, the wind horse flag's five animals form a compelling symbolic arrangement.
Each of these creatures corresponds to one of the five elements: the tiger stands for space or wood, since a tiger in the forest represents the vitality of the universe; the snow lion symbolizes earth, moving through mountains and forests; the great bird—whether the Bon religion's Peng bird or the Buddhist Golden Winged bird, associated with strength—symbolizes fire; the dragon or dragon clan symbolizes water, as they are spirits inhabiting water; and the horse symbolizes wind, being the mountain god's mount with thirty-two virtues that runs through the sky. Additionally, they represent a particular region: the four corners and the center, a concept of four corners that, according to Tubo-period historical texts, was unique to the people.
The colors of the wind horse flag's fabric are assigned to the five elements: blue for wood, green for fire, red for earth, yellow for iron, and white for water. Note, however, that the five creatures depicted on prayer flags are not always fixed; in certain earlier Bon prayer flags, the white yak was included among them, while the snow lion or tiger was excluded.
Beyond this, the story has been expanded to claim that the five prayer-flag animals stand for the symbolic totems of Tibet's five ancient clans. In a mythological reading focused on these five beings, they represent the five offspring (ཀླུང་རྟ་སྤུན་ལྔ་) of the World-Creating King (སྲིད་པ་ཡེ་སྨོན་རྒྱལ་པོ་) and the World-Creating Queen (སྲིད་པ་ཡེ་སྨོན་རྒྱལ་མོ་). Because the elements exist in a symbiotic relationship, each one plays a supportive part for another.
With the water element's support, the wood element brings harmony to its environment. The wood element's assistance to fire yields positive results. Strength is increased when the fire element aids the earth. Smooth governance arises from the earth element's support of iron. When iron backs the water element, power and wealth abound.
Prayer flags, from a specific religious viewpoint, are understood differently in both their purpose and design. Beyond this, the elements represented on wind horse flags are made fully apparent through their use of color and animal symbolism.
In the Buddhist view, prayer flags work on the "body (身) - speech (语) - mind (意)"—the three gates in Buddhism (སྒོ་གསུམ་)—while according to Bön and early traditions, they aid "destiny (命) - body (身) - fortune (运势)" by pacifying the various spirits that move through the body's blood vessels.
Bön prayer flags typically fill their compositions with animal imagery, whereas Buddhist versions often feature a deity or high monk at the center and repeat Buddhist mantras throughout the remaining spaces. One notable Buddhist innovation in prayer flag iconography is the "Dvajagrakeyura" (རྒྱལ་མཚན་རྩེ་མོའི་དཔུང་རྒྱན་, the Banner-Crested Armored Goddess).
The *dhāraṇī* practice known as "mantra veneration" combines with indigenous prayer flags here, creating a uniquely Buddhist ritual space. This goddess originates from the luminous radiance atop the Buddha’s head, embodying the *dhāraṇī* system that sustains wholesome teachings via sacred syllables and insight.
The ritual may be performed at mountain passes, water bodies, or tree branches, as long as the location is likely a gathering place for the elements. As for the Wind Horse flag ceremony, despite the existence of various opinions, its basic sequence is as follows: [1] a human makes a request, [2] the horses summon the elemental wind (འབྱུང་བའི་རླུང་ཆེན་), [3] that elemental wind conveys the information to different objects of desire (ཕྱོགས་ལ་བསྟན་པ་), [4] people chant (བོན་དང་བསྭོ་) to the deities, and [5] the deities give feedback (བཀྲ་སྦྱིན་པ་).
If we believe in the ever-shifting elements and the poetic bodily philosophy behind prayer flags, then wherever they flutter, divine blessings surely follow. That trust is well placed: the blessings are real, and the celestial horses still gallop across the clouds. Far more could be said about such flags, including “Geser Prayer Flags” (20th century, Modern Commercial Product) and “Bon Prayer Flags” (19th century, Private Collection); notably, these flags carry not only Tibetan mantras but also what later scholars recognize as Zhangzhung script.
This article was translated from SuolangWangqing's blog. "Precious Steed" dates to the 19th century and is held in a private collection.