Spiritual significance of Tibetan prayer flags
Tibetan/Buddhist Prayer flags have greater significance than one thinks they do. Prayer flags have been used by people , mainly from Buddhism. Today, regardless of religion, people use prayer flags due to the spiritual meaning behind them. It is believed that these fluttering prayer flags propagate goodness and fortune in the surroundings.
Various prayers and mantras are imprinted on these flags. It is generally misunderstood that they carry prayers to the gods. Rather, according to the actual Tibetan belief, the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space, meaning to bring benefit to all.
It is believed that the prayer flags should never touch ground, otherwise bring bad luck for the entire time they are hanging.
That is why, they are burned down in fire even to dispose of them but never left on the ground.
These Tibetan flags are left un-hemmed to allow the cotton to unravel in the wind. They are prepared by using old and traditional printing techniques on block- printed fabric. They come in five different colors (green, yellow, red, and blue, white, red, green and yellow). Each of the five colors represents and element. Blue represents the sky, white the air, red is for fire, green symbolizes water and yellow is for the earth. Together all these five colors represent balance. They are always stitched together in a specific order as mentioned above. A new/full moon day is the best time to hang the new prayer flags. In Tibet and Nepal , old prayer flags are replaced with new ones annually on the Tibetan New Year.