Prayer flags and prayer wheels

Prayer flags and prayer wheels are everywhere in Bhutan: on mountain passes, across rivers, beside temples and in front of homes. Both send prayers out into the world, carried by the wind or by the turning of a wheel.

The colours

The most familiar flags, lungta or "wind horse" flags, come in five colours, each linked to an element:

• Blue for space or sky
• White for air or wind
• Red for fire
• Green for water
• Yellow for earth

Printed with prayers and mantras, they are believed to spread blessings and good fortune each time the wind moves them.

Different kinds of flags

Strings of small flags are hung across passes and bridges. Tall vertical flags on poles (darchor) stand outside homes and temples. Groups of 108 white flags (manidar) are raised on hillsides in memory of someone who has died, to help them on their way.

Prayer wheels

A prayer wheel (mani lhakhor) is a cylinder filled with rolled paper printed with mantras, often "Om mani padme hum". Turning it is said to have the same effect as reciting the prayers inside. You will see small hand wheels, large wheels in temples, and wheels turned by streams that keep praying day and night.

Etiquette

• Always turn prayer wheels clockwise.
• Walk clockwise around chortens, temples and wheels.
• Do not step over or sit on fallen flags.