prayer flag

prayer flag (plural prayer flags)

1. A colourful rectangular cloth hung from a thread and strung along mountain ridges and peaks high in the Himalayas by practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism to bless the surrounding countryside or for other purposes.

   Synonym: thangka

   • 2011 November 6, Maria Popova, “'Balloons for Bhutan': Jonathan Harris Documents Happiness”, in The Atlantic‎:

     On the final night of his journey, he strung up the inflated balloons at Duchala, a sacred mountain pass at 10,000 feet, bobbing amidst Buddhist prayer flags.

   • 2017, Carol A. Wilson, Stillness on Shaking Ground: A Woman's Himalayan Journey Through Love, Loss, And Letting Go‎, John Hunt, →ISBN:

     There are two kinds of prayer flags: horizontal ones, called Lung ta (Wylie: rlung-rta, meaning “Wind Horse”) in Tibetan, and vertical ones, called Darchor (Wylie: dar-Icog, meaning “flagstaff”).

• wind horse