The Wind Horse Flag Carrying Divine Blessings ▎Collection of Foreign Museums

"Prayer Flags of Buddhism", 18th century, housed in the British Museum

"Buddhist Wind Horse Flags", 19th century, American Museum of Natural History

"Buddhist Prayer Flags", 19th century, Private Collection

"Buddhist Prayer Flags", 19th century, British Museum collection

"Buddhist Prayer Flags", 19th century, Private Collection

"Buddhist Prayer Flags", 19th century, Private Collection

"Bon Prayer Flags", 20th century, Private Collection

"Buddhist Prayer Flags: The Tenfold Powerful Symbol", 19th century, Private Collection

"Buddhist Prayer Flags: Auspicious Elements", 19th century, Private Collection

As Hugh Edward Richardson (1905–2001) wrote 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."* When we speak of prayer flags, a dimension beyond the object itself—a spatial-field and a philosophy of the body—emerges from the hidden.

The Meaning of Prayer Flags

The Tibetan term commonly used today to refer to prayer flags is "རླུང་རྟ་" (lungta), and the Chinese term "风马旗" (fēng mǎ qí) is a translation of this, with the added meaning of "flag." However, delving deeper into the significance of prayer flags reveals that this commonly used Tibetan term may only represent the most superficial layer of its historical evolution, combining its original meaning with rich visual symbolism (the central horse and the four directional animals).

In older texts, the Tibetan term for prayer flags is "ཀླུང་རྟ་" (klungta). Here, the first character, "ཀླུང་" (klung), should not be interpreted simply as an alternate spelling for "wind" nor merely as a reference to the "wind element" among the five elements. In earlier indigenous religious texts, "ཀླུང་" (klung) generally referred to a specific area (such as a river or farmland), or more precisely, a collective (a river being a collection of water, farmland a collection of earth). Similarly, the character "རྟ་" (ta), often understood as "horse," did not originally denote the animal.

"Bon Wind-Horse Flags", 20th century, Private Collection

The term "རྟ་" (ta) carries rich and multifaceted meanings beyond its common interpretation as "horse." It can also denote tonal pitch in chanting or medicinal adjuvants (as in "སྨན་རྟ་," sman ta). The remarkable feature of Tibetan lexical usage lies in how a core meaning radiates outward, allowing other meanings of the same word to manifest within its interpretive framework. For instance, "རྟ་" in the context of prayer flags originally signified a "means or instrument" (e.g., "སྨན་རྟ་" as a medicinal catalyst or "ལས་རྟ་" in Bon texts referring to ritual aids). However, in later developments, the conceptual link between the celestial horse and the flow of sound contributed to its association with melodic tones, while the literal image of the horse was incorporated into woodblock prints for prayer flags (as detailed in the works of historian Professor Namkha Norbu [ནམ་མཁའ་ནོར་བུ་]).

Prayer Flags and the Elements

Thus, the meaning of prayer flags becomes much clearer: they are not merely banners centered around a horse fluttering in the wind, but rather a means to assist a particular collective through the medium of flags. So what is this collective? The answer lies in the assemblage of elements (འབྱུང་བ་) — the elemental field. To understand why these elements held such profound importance for the early inhabitants of the snowland, we must examine the traditional calendric system rooted in elemental theory.

"Buddhist Prayer Flag Woodblock", 19th century, Collection of Rubin Museum of Art, New York

"Woodblock for Buddhist Prayer Flags", 19th century, held at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York

According to traditional Bon scriptures, the complete interpretation of elemental calendrics traces back to its spiritual founder and master, Tonpa Shenrab (སྟོན་པ་གཤེན་རབ་). When Shenrab's son, the calendrical master Seu Kongtrul Chung (ཟེའུ་ཀོང་འཕྲུལ་ཆུང་), inquired about the method of elemental calendrics, Tonpa Shenrab replied: *"All matter is composed of particles (རྡུལ་ཕྲན་), and what enables these particles to function within matter are the elements (འབྱུང་བ་)."*  

The elements are broadly classified into four categories—earth, water, fire, and wind (ས་ཆུ་མེ་རླུང་). The earth element gives form to all things, the water element gathers energy into cohesion, the fire element brings fruition, and the wind element propels growth and cyclical movement. These elements generally exist in harmony, following a natural order. Yet, adverse interactions between elements may arise over time, leading to the dissolution of matter (*"The Science of Prognostic Calendrics,"* སྣང་མཐོང་རྩིས་ཀྱི་རིག་པ་).

"Buddhist Prayer Flags", 18th century, Field Museum of Natural History collection

"Buddhist Prayer Flags", 18th century, Field Museum of Natural History

When asked about the operation of elemental calendrics, Tonpa Shenrab explained: *"By examining the relationships between the external world and the twelve months, four seasons, and positions of constellations, one discerns cosmic changes—these changes constitute the natural order (རྟོགས་བྱེད་). This order helps people understand the connection between external activities (like farming and herding) and elemental shifts (positive or negative) within the inner world. These relationships, in turn, guide individuals to elemental healing and harmonization methods suited to their needs"* (*"The Wheel of Elemental Time,"* འབྱུང་བ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་).  

While this account of calendrical knowledge’s origin bears strong mytho-historical traits (a narrative pattern common in sacred histories), it nonetheless reveals why elements were so vital to Tibetan life—and thus why prayer flags emerged and evolved as they did.

"Buddhist Prayer Flags", 20th century, Private Collection

"Buddhist Prayer Flag Woodblock Print", 19th century, Collection of the Rubin Museum of Art, New York

How to interpret prayer flags?

Even after clarifying the relationship between prayer flags and elemental theory, two questions remain: why are the elements in prayer flags grouped in sets of five, and how are these five elements visually represented?  

The five elements in elemental calendrics—"earth, water, fire, wind, and space" (ས་ཆུ་མེ་རླུང་ནམ་མཁའ་; where "space" refers both to the sky and emptiness)—differ from those in astrological calculations—"wood, fire, earth, iron, and water" (ཤིང་མེ་ས་ལྕགས་ཆུ་; their sequence is fixed, and the arrangement "metal, wood, water, fire, earth" does not belong to Himalayan calendrical systems). Their computational methods also vary significantly. Yet in prayer flags, both elemental groupings coexist: the calendrical set represents internal harmony or disharmony among elements, while the astrological set reflects their connection to the external world.

"Four Sacred Animals", 19th century, Private Collection

"Snow Lion", 20th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York

"Garuda", 20th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York

"Tiger", 20th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York

"Dragon", 20th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York

The five animals in the wind horse flag are an interesting symbolic system. They represent a certain region (the four corners and the center: according to historical texts from the Tubo period, people had a unique concept of the four corners) and correspond to the five elements: the tiger symbolizes the space element or wood element (the tiger in the forest represents the vitality of the universe), the snow lion symbolizes the earth element (moving through the mountains and forests), the great bird (whether it be the Bon religion's Peng bird or the Buddhist Golden Winged bird, associated with strength) symbolizes the fire element, the dragon or dragon clan symbolizes the water element (a group of spirits living in water), and the horse symbolizes the wind element (the mountain god's mount with thirty-two virtues, running through the sky). As for the colors of the fabric of the wind horse flag, the wood element is blue, the fire element is green, the earth element is red, the iron element is yellow, and the water element is white.

"Tree of Life", 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York

Detail: Snow Lion and Dragon with Divine Bird Between Them

Detail: Tiger and White Yak with the Cosmic Destiny Frog Between Them

Detail: Deities and Tibetan Script

It should be noted that the five creatures depicted on prayer flags are not always fixed. In some earlier Bon prayer flags, the five creatures included the white yak, while excluding the snow lion or tiger. According to a mythological interpretation centered around these five beings, they symbolize 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་). This narrative has also been extended to suggest that the five animals of prayer flags represent the symbolic totems of Tibet's five ancient clans.

"Deity Werma", 19th century, Shelley & Donald Rubin Collection

Detail: Snow Lion and Dragon

Detail: Tiger and White Yak with the Hidden Realm Gate Between Them

Detail: Warlord Holding an Arrow

Detail: Household Deity of Ironworking

Due to the symbiotic relationship between elements, each element has a supportive role towards another. The wood element is assisted by the water element, creating harmony in the water environment; the fire element is assisted by the wood element, leading to successful outcomes; the earth element is assisted by the fire element, increasing strength; the iron element is assisted by the earth element, ensuring smooth governance; the water element is assisted by the iron element, leading to abundance of power and wealth. Through the combination of animal imagery and colors, the concept of elements embodied in the wind horse flag is fully demonstrated.

Prayer Flags in Religious Interpretation

Apart from the elements behind the prayer flags, according to a certain religious perspective, the function and form of the prayer flags have different interpretations. According to Bön and early beliefs, prayer flags help with "destiny (命) - body (身) - fortune (运势)," appeasing the various spirits moving through the blood vessels of the body; while in the Buddhist perspective, prayer flags help with "body (身) - speech (语) - mind (意)" [also known as the three gates in Buddhism: སྒོ་གསུམ་]. In terms of form, Bön rarely uses images other than animals to fill the composition, while in Buddhist prayer flags, the images of deities or high monks are often placed at the center of the image; and in the blank spaces of Buddhist prayer flags, there are often repeated Buddhist mantras.

"Buddhist Prayer Flags: Padmasambhava", 19th century, Private Collection

"Bon Prayer Flags: Tonpa Shenrab", 19th century, Private Collection

"Prayer Flags of Drolma Yongdu (Tara Banner Crest)", 19th century, Private Collection

"Drolma Yongdu (Tara Banner Crest)", Mongolia region, 19th century, Private Collection

A uniquely significant Buddhist adaptation in prayer flag iconography is the "Dvajagrakeyura" (རྒྱལ་མཚན་རྩེ་མོའི་དཔུང་རྒྱན་, the Banner-Crested Armored Goddess). This female deity emanates from the radiant light above the Buddha’s head, personifying the *dhāraṇī* system (which upholds virtuous teachings through sacred syllables and wisdom). Here, the *dhāraṇī* practice of "mantra veneration" merges with indigenous prayer flags, forging a distinctively Buddhist ritual space.

"Dvajagrakeyura (Banner-Crested Armored Goddess)", Tibet region, 20th century, Private Collection

"Dvajagrakeyura Prayer Flags", 19th century, Private Collection

"Dvajagrakeyura Prayer Flag Woodblock Print", 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York