page_title: Prayer flag
section_title: Lung ta/Darchog styles
hierarchical_section_title: Prayer flag / Lung ta/Darchog styles
caption_attribution_description: English: Image in the book states, "The Tibetan LUNG-Horse" (It is correctly called a "wind horse" in English or "lungta" in Tibetan) 中文（繁體）‎: 龍馬
context_page_description: A Tibetan prayer flag is a colorful rectangular cloth, often found strung along trails and peaks high in the Himalayas. They are used to bless the surrounding countryside and for other purposes. Prayer flags are believed to have originated with Bon. In Bon, shamanistic Bonpo used primary-colored plain flags in Tibet. Traditional prayer flags include woodblock-printed text and images.
context_section_description: There are two kinds of prayer flags: horizontal ones, called Lung ta (Wylie: rlung-rta, meaning "Wind Horse") in Tibetan, and vertical ones, called Darchog (Wylie: dar-lcog, meaning "flagstaff").
  Lung ta (horizontal) prayer flags are of square or rectangular shape, and are connected along their top edges to a long string or thread. They are commonly hung on a diagonal line from high to low between two objects (e.g., a rock and the top of a pole) in high places such as the tops of temples, monasteries, stupas, and mountain passes.
  Darchog (vertical) prayer flags are usually large single rectangles attached to poles along their vertical edge. Darchog are commonly planted in the ground, mountains, cairns, and on rooftops, and are iconographically and symbolically related to the Dhvaja.
caption: A Tibetan "lung ta" or "wind horse" from an 1895 book by Laurence Austine Waddell
exif: {}