Tibetan Prayer Flags

As a minority people in China , People in Tibet do believe in different thing from the Han culture.
Different from the modernized look , unique lifestyle , unique skills , unique medicine ,unique arts or architecture, unique spiritual things and of course living on the world famous plateau.

The Tibetan / Zhang people love to expressing their feeling through song , dance and prayer. Especially for prayer flags are a common sight in Tibet area prayer flags are colorful panel or rectangular cloths often found strung along mountain ridges , peaks high , trees, on hill tops , a rock , around religious sites such as monasteries and stupas to bless the surrounding countryside also each type of flags has a different purpose carries different image and different prayers.

Prayer flags found between Lhasa and shigatse

The traditional five colors represent the five Buddha families and five elements
Blue (symbolizing sky/space) Akshobhya Buddha and space.
White (symbolizing water ) Ratna Sambhava Buddha and water.
Red (symbolizing fire) Amitabha Buddha and fire
Green (symbolizing air/wind) Amoghasiddhi Buddha and air
Yellow (symbolizing earth) Vairocana Buddha and eart



There are two kinds of prayer flags:
horizontal ones, called lung ta (meaning "Wind Horse") in Tibetan,
the vertical Darchor. "Dar" translates as "to increase life, fortune, health and wealth", "Cho" translates as "all sentient beings".

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 in high places such as the tops of temples, monasteries, stupas or mountain passes.

Darchor (vertical) prayer flags are usually large single rectangles attached to poles along their vertical edge. Darchor are commonly planted in the ground, mountains, cairns or on rooftops and are iconographically and symbolically related to the Dhvaja.

Lung Ta / Wind Horse flags are the most common prayer flag in Tibet and The prayer is written in Tibetan and always express positive intentions for the happiness, enlightenment and protection of all beings.

Timing of Hanging , Taking Down , and other things about Flag Prayers
1. Flags should be hung in the correct sequence,: blue, white, red, green, yellow from left to right or from bottom to top.)
2. Old prayer flags are replaced with new ones annually during the Tibetan New Year Old prayer flags should be burned not thrown in a rubbish bin. . .
3. For the best effect they are hung on an auspicious day or at an auspicious moment, such as early on a windy morning , windy days, especially on a Friday. Try to avoid hanging new flags on Tuesdays and Saturdays
4. They should not be placed on the ground or used in clothing..
5.. Please don't place them on the ground or use them in clothing.
6. never associate them with intoxicants such as tobacco or alcohol.

As a Tibetans believe that hanging flags in high places the wind moves the flags, will carry the blessings , happiness , long life , prosperity.

I love these flags since I was saw for the first time in the Shangri La journey, they are so lovely to display and i hang them around my house to show that I am support for the Tibetan people, and bring peace to my home.

Day 10 - last day

day 10

Today we ready fly to Beijing from lhasa airport.
At lhasa Airport, I found things so small , small airport , small book store and small resto. Dramatically but still so mysterious.

On Flight
I always slept on the flight - feel so good because of my travel pillow – nice excuse ya…… actually I always easily fall asleep hahahaha
The flight was pleasant from lhasa to Beijing.

When was my last time in Beijing?
Its Feb 15 2007 from Beijing back to Jakarta , WOW . It is incredible that I didn't set my foot in Beijing for about one and half year. It was a long time ago. in 2008 I am back again , I have a lot of friends in Beijing, but I don't know they can meet for reunion or not coz may be they go out for vacation but I try to contact with them and make a reunion.

Stepping out of the airport, we began to decided how we should go to downtown. Taxi station is on the left hand and the airport bus stop is on the right.

OUR CHOICE : RIGHT
Our destination is Zhong Guan Chun terminal , it’s the near to tsing hua univ and wu dao kou area , and we take a bus from there to reka’s house.

Why we choose the airport bus ?
1. its cheap … only RMB 16 and we don’t have many luggage
2. To avoid MR Un-Fortune taxy driver , coz its already 8.30 pm and we don’t want he take us round and around also pretend he don’t know wu dao kou area.
3. The bus large with large seat and it is also fast.
4. Maybe outside still traffic jam

Beijing changed a lot, I would say I am so impressed by Beijing again after last visit about one and half year ago. The roads are better, new subway – yeah… and cheap ticket too - , new building to shopping and also new metro from airport to everywhere

It takes about 45 minutes to get reka’s house

Arriving at reka’s house , it is already 9:30 PM we sleeping in reka’s house for few days . I am feeling good and starving too. We meet we balaz , he from hungary same with reka. So if they talk with their language I feel they argue each other…hahahaha but its not.

Oh… thanks to reka for feed us with BBQ street… yummy… I still cant believe I try food street again and also reka said we must run away if police come because if forbidden to sell the food in the street… GOSH…I am tired , starving and I must run too ? but thanks to God no police patrol in this area.

We eat , eat and eat that night .i don’t realize it 1:30 AM now. I think it is the time to go to bed .

day 10

ini adalah hari terakhir gitu di lhasa

ga kerasa , hari ini free day. di jemput buat ke airport sekitar jam 11 siang.
semalem itu giliran lin yang tepar , tidur mulu sampe pagi.
akhirnya pagi ini kita seger buger deh.... pagi nya kita pengen coba sarapan di hotel tapi karena kita ke ruang makannya udah sekitar jam 8 an gitu , ga dapet makanan lagi , cuma minum aer hanget ..tapi itu kayanya aer panas deh buat minum vitamin.

jalan jalan ke bakhor lagi , beli singing bowl,prayer flags, gantungan kunci mini , dll

abis itu buru buru balik ke hotel , siap siap .

dari jam 11 kita ke airport lama seh jalanannya.... sekitar 1 jam an , cerahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh banget tapi kita sedih, waktu kita nyampe pengennya cepet cepet ke beijing , giliran beberapa jam lagi ke beijing malah pengen lebih lama lagi di sini


nahhhhhhhhhhhhh pas nyampe di bandara , uda pada ngantriiiiiiiiiii karna bandaranya tuh kecil banget , kita nganti bersama teriknya matahari , HUH
panas boooo

trus bt nya lagi jam flight nya kita tuh di ganti jadi jam 4 sore , bt kan mustinya jam 2 an gitu.
tau gitu kan kita masih punya banyak waktu jalan jalan

ya udah . di bandara kita makan siang.. seperti biasa mie lagi ..... ngob - ngob ga jelas... jelas seh obrolannya misalnya , yg harus kita lakukan waktu di beijing....
1. makan di issin
2. makan di resto korea bbq yang katanya lin lin mirip sama bbq nya di phil
3. makan di resto korea bbq xiong jia
4.makan di tonkatsu
5.ke wudaokou clothes market
6. ke yong an li , mau beli dompet dll trusssssssss g pengen beli dompet itu seharga 30rmb , biarin di buka harga 300 rmb , harus dapet 30 rmb hahahaha
7. liat liat park olympic
8. jalan jalan di tsing hua uni..,,,
9. beli dvd bajakan harganya sekitar 8 atau 7 rmb
10 ke houhai , bei hai , dll

kita naek pesawat tuh jam 3 an , stop over di chong qing gitu dah jam 6 sore.
nyampe di airport beijing dah jam 9 an malem , tunggu bagasi lamaaaaaaaaaaaaa bener

akhirnya kita masih ada bus airport yang ke zhong guan cun juga , lumayan la... harganya masih rmb 16

dari zhong guang cun tuh dah deket sama tsinghua , deket juga sama tempat reka dari sana kita baru naek taxy . hemat hahahah karna duitnya buat makan ama jalan jalan deh.

dari bandara ke zhong guan cun tuh jauh banget... 1 jam lebih deh lewatin olympic park juga , dari sana ke tempat reka deket udah malem jadi ga macet cuma sekita 15rmb ,

akhirnyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ketemua juga rumah reka , itu dah jam 11 lewat deh..capeeeeeeeeeeeeee banget ternyata di sana tuh ada temen dia juga namanya balaz orang hungaria juga

dulu tuh orang ga aneh seperti skrang , tapi ga tau deh cuma g yang ngerasa apa lin ngerasa juga

menjelang tengah malem reka traktir kita yang rou chuanrrrrrrrrrrrrr semacem sate gitu isi nya bisa sayap ayam , roti mantou , jamur , selada , daging sapi , ayam , kambing , hati dll deh dibakar semua pake bumbu bumbu yang beijing banget...ahhahahaah kita seh bilangnya gitu bumbu beijing

kenyanggggggggggggggggggggggggggg soalnya di traktir.. jadi makan sepuasnya... hhahaha ngobrol kita.. g sampe ga nyangka bisa balik ke beijing lagi , makan mulu kerjaannya..

abis itu kita pulang.. capeeeeeeeeeee tidur , kita di kasih tempat tidurnya si reka , sebenernya tidur di sofa seh gpp , abis uda hemat hotel hahahaha selama temen nawarin tidur di tempat dia ya.. kita ayo aja..

Day 9

0ct 2 2008
day 9 - somewhere out there

Day 8 - shigatse - Birthday Girl

1 Oct 2008

today , wednesday its a special day coz its Geraldine birthday also China celebrated National Day too but not like in Beijing or any city in China so crowded, rush , people everywhere , in here i feel no body care about 1st oct.


the birthday Girl

Anyway we are ready for our next journey. We are in Shigatse city, its about 250 km southwest of lhasa. Shigatse is the second largest city of Tibet.In shigatse have many monastery , the famous is tashilhunpo monastery. We arrived at Tashilhunpo Monastery around 7.30 am and I saw before The monastery open many people pray in front of the monastery.



Shigatse’s main attraction is tashilhunpo monastery, the seat of the Panchen lama. Built in 1447 by a nephew of Tsongkhapa , the monastery once house over 4000 monks , but there are now only 600.


Apart from a giant stute of Jampa (Maitreya) Buddha (nearly 27 m high) in the temple of the Maitreya , the monastery is also famed for its Grand Hall , which houses the opulent tomb (containing 85 kg of gold and masses of jewels) of the fourth Panchen Lama.




It was pretty unbelievable seeing this huge sculpture inside the chapel built for it.


The one thing I noticed with every house no matter how small or old it was was that they all had colors. Whether it was around the door trim or along the roof line every home was painted with blue, red, yellow, and green. I thought that was incredible.

Later we drove along the Lhasa River which flows through the river valley. The river was huge and eventually turned into the Brahmaputra River that flows all the way down to India. The way the Ganges mountains reflected on the river like a mirror was awesome. In places it was as still as glass and in others it rocked like the ocean. We drive back to Lhasa. We arrived at lhasa around 4 pm , and we planning visit norbulingka ( 罗布林卡国家公园）– jewel park – its was Dalai lama’s summer palace since the 7th dalai lama from the 1780s up until thePRC takeover in the late 1950s. Actually norbulingka its not in our schedule but we still have time to visit the park and we pay ticket for RMB 70 / person because we are foreigner but only RMB 2 for Tibetans . Its was quite a different experience visiting Norbulingka compared with the Potala Palace. the park is crowded with picnickers, traditional Tibetan opera performances are also held there EVEN they bring a TENT !!! maybe to enjoying the height of autumn weather I think The gardens are a favourite picnic spot in Lhasa and that time the Sho Dun festival or Yoghurt Festival but we didn’t find yoghurt shop inside hahahahaha only the colourfull flags written yoghurt festival. Walking along the road in the palace, we were amazed with the park. The park so big with several palace inside , and the weather not too hot with the chilly wind blowing, with a lot of flowers , grass . there also ZOO , yes.. inside the park there is a zoo , but the condition very bad. I think that’s a worst zoo I ever visit in china.

Day 7 - Shigatse - A Wonder In The Mountains

30 Sept 2008 - 3900m

On Tuesday , I got up around 7.00 and we left the hotel at 9 am to began the 7 hours drive from lhasa to shigatse so We will spend most of our day driving. About one and a half hours outside of Lhasa The Yarlung River.

Autumn in Tibet

Its On the old road between gyantse and lhasa , dazzling yamdrok tso lake ( 4488 m ) can be seen from the summit of the Kamba – La pass.

Yamdrok tso lake It's one of the holiest lakes in Tibet, The lake lies several hundred metres below the road and in clear weather is a fabulous shade of deep turquoise. The lake is incredibly blue and massive, making it seem like a caribbean patch of water and for several minutes I was thinking about jumping in it. Then I got out of the jeep to take a picture and realised how frigging cold it was outside.

The scenery is just spectacular. Pictures or words will never do it justice. Green mountains, rocky mountains in the distance covered with snow, fast flowing large rivers. As we climbed up the mountains a certain beloved aunt came to mind as we wound back and forth in a zig zag pattern for at least an hour.

Along the journey There many police controls around Gyantse , we must stop several times to do the paper work. We headed onto to Gyantse after 4 hours on the car , stopping for lunch along the way in a little town. We choose restaurant of Zhuang Yuan , Mr Zhuang Yuang and his wife are very keen to please. We tried they sweet and sour chicken. Delicious. After lunch we drove some more and stopped to look at a glacier at the top of a mountain. The scenery is just spectacular , pictures or words will never do it justice.

All these mountains are spectacular natural views ideal for sightseeing, exploring and conducting scientific investigations.

Where the sun hit the water it looked like turquoise with diamonds sparkling on top. With the water below, the snow covered mountains looked even brighter in the background.

along the road we could see herds of sheep, donkeys, cows, and yaks। Wild dogs also ran around freely. The donkeys and sheep hung the closest to the roads while the yak stayed secluded in the fields.

A Tibetan traffic jam!!!!

We arrived in Shigatse around 4:00 pm and our guide drop us to our hotel , given the key , we resting for a while. Around 7 pm we go out from the hotel , we found a local Tibetan restaurant to get our dinner. We meet with Tibetan children, they come with their parents to dinner but they playing downstair with us hahahahaha.

We ask them to write their name in Tibetan words,

ask them to sing Tibetan song but they don’t do it , also we playing puzzle with them.

Ge , with the girl and they Nacha Puzzle

Day 6 - Lhasa "Journey To The West"

Sept 28 2008
Lhasa - Elevation 3700m

On Monday morning we met our guide down in the lobby at 8 at the lobby , our first stop for in Lhasa – the heart and soul of Tibet - is the famous Polata palace –the winter palace of the Dalai Lama a vast white and ochre fortress soaring over one of the world’s highest cities-. We walked from our hotel to Potala Palace. It little bit col and rainy this morning but the atmosphere around Potala Palace is indescribable.

Potala Palace , It’s the centerpiece of Lhasa and also all over Tibet, Tibetans –tibet people- come inside the Potala for prayer or round the pilgrims every day.
Having been here less than 24 hours and now we must climbed all of the steps to the top , Its kill us !!!!.

I Saw so many many many many stairs along the wall to reach the mail building at the top. Its so tired , but slowly finally we reached the top
The views from the top of the palace are also spectacular as you can see all of Lhasa below with the snow capped mountains in the background.
The view from midway up the steps

Our last picture , before line up to enter the Potala Palace
After seeing many , many , many , many and many rooms to the palace and Photography is not allowed inside the chapels , we walked down from the back of the Palace.

All of the doors in the palaces have this kind of braided handle. The five colors are to represent the five elements.
Its 11 am when we finished our Potala tour , I didn’t expected my stomach began to hurt and I know I cant enjoy the journey anymore because its getting worse and worse. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Go down from Potala , we met again our guide.

We promptly stopped for lunch around Barkhor area called MAKYEAME – means beautifull woman in Tibetan language- the foods not really good , but from upstairs we can saw area around Barkhor . We ordered soups , momo (dumplings filled with vegetables or yak met) , thukpa – noodles with meat –, cha ngamo -sweet milky tea- and some India food. We there until 2 pm and thanks to God my stomach not really hurt anymore and the mlky tea was so GOOD.

Views from second floor Makyeame
Our stop is the Barkhor , is essentially a kora –pilgrim circuit- that proceeds clock wise around the periphery of the Jokhang Temple.


All along the the pilgrim circuit are shops, stalls , tea houses and hawkes. They selling so many variety , prayer flags , tibet singing bowls, Tibetan boots , nepales biscuit , yak butter , juniper incense, turquoise jewelry and prayer wheels.
There were monks , women , children sitting in the streets with beats in their hand and start to praying , and many people give them money too. It’s a very common way of praying.
The golden – roofed Jokhang Temple is 1300 years old and is TIBET’S HOLIEST SHRINE. I saw in front of the temple there were dozens of Tibetans prostrating. They had pads underneath them and they would bend to their knees, stretch out on their stomach, come back to knees, stand up with their hands together, reach their hands to the sky, and then repeat it over and over again.
Like inside the potala place no photography allowed ,Inside the temple was lit by candles, was very cozy and warm.


I feel power and spirituality from the prayes surrounding the temple. we are lines to enter each room , They praying with many ways , some of them were holding prayer wheels chanting and repeat om mani padme hum, the other people they carried yak butter to pour into the candle holders or just bring small money 1 mao to put in in the stupa. So I can saw so many money from other country , I saw money from Indonesia too.

We returned to the Hotel around 3 pm , and the rest of the day was spent in bed with watching Korean love movie as ussual a love triangle hahahaha and I trying to find way to make my stomach feel better. After slept for 2 hours, 6.30 pm we go out in the street and take some photos in front of Potala Palace AGAIN until 8 pm.

Second day in Lhasa so impressing , It’s even more impressive than it looks in pictures.

Day 5 - Guang Zhou - Lhasa - Tibet

Sept 28 2008

It’s 4:30 a.m. and time for us to wake up. Our flight from guang zhou to lasha 8 am but we haven’t get the ticket from our tour agent. And claire’s driver waiting us around 5.45am.

arghhhhhhhhhhh so sleepy but we must wake up, prepare go to guang zhou airport for the flight to lhasa – we ate our breakfast on the way to airport -.

We have arrived early coz we don’t have any idea about the ticket and whom we will meet – everything can be happen in china - hehehehe.

Our flight from guang zhou – lhasa , will stop in chongqing to change the flight

and Yeah….. boarding the flight was kind of stressful and going through immigration was so many problem.

Security is extremely tight at the airport. All luggage goes through an MRI machine and passengers through metal detectors just to get inside the terminal.

1. Christ give me seal document , our travel agent said we cant opent the document because its secret , when we arrived at lhasa just give the document to our guide.THATS IT , if u open it, our trip will be cancel.

2.So of course we remember what our agent said, but the problem when we want to check in the airport officer want us to open the document , they want to see our permit after long argue with them we let them open the document.

3.Customs was a little different , passengers who have flight ticket to lhasa or chong qing have own line to queue the customs and before we passing our body through the machine we must take off our shoes and put them through the machine. No vehicles are allowed to pull up front.

THE HOLY DOCUMENT - TIBET PERMIT

Fuih… after all the custom , we finally sitting at the gate, the announcement came that the flight to Lhasa would board in fifteen minutes. A little wave of excitement came over me. I still can’t quite believe we’re about to get on a plane to Lhasa – Tibet !

Yeah… TIBET Here We Come, we prepare for this tibet trip from june , but serious research around end of aug but I think its not enough to make us stay as comfortable as possible because we heard that people will exercise at least 6 month to go there , but we didn’t do anything even jogging everymorning to prepare the weather.

we arrived at Lhasa Gonggar airport at 2 PM the airport is not actually in lhasa , but is 2 hours away. We were ready to get off the flight and we followed the crowd of the people to the area where passangers are picked up. We were look for a sign with one of our names on it and I finally saw a man waving a sign that wrote our name. We waved to him and he beckoned us over. He told us that his name was Wang Dui and that he would be our guide during our stay. We walked over the car that we would use for our travels and met our driver.

They greet us with white silk prayer cloths that they drape around our necks. We climb into a car and on the way to our hotel. We promptly stopped for take a first picture to see Buddha that had ben carved into this rock and so many prayer flags drapped all over the hill.

Buddha... right there waiting for us .

Our guide took us to our hotel and we will meet them around 5pm to had dinner with them a. Our hotel was a 3 star hotel and near with potala palace , just cross the street.

first impression about Tibet’s capital city – Lhasa - Lhasa literally means "place of the gods" There are many police controls around Lhasa.

Near our hotel we headed down was lined with army trucks and The soldiers had set up 1 place with various position , 1 soldier see in the north side , west side , south side and the last see the east side, I want to take a pic but I am afraid if they know I took a pic I will go to trouble zone.

Speaking of food, Our first dinner in Tibet we went to Lhasa Kitchen ,

around barkhor lhasa area.

We order tibet native food such as tsampa , yak momos (momos are the Tibetan version of the Chinese dumplings) , some Indian food also we ordered butter tea.

We returned to the Hotel and start to take a rest. When I do sleep I feel so uncomfortable may be because of the high altitudes, its feels like u already sleep very long time. I always woke up after 2 hours slept and its still dark. It’s so terrible when you keep waking up in the night, checking the time, and get frustrated because it’s not time to get up yet and hope its will over soon.

For me and ge, we still have a planning to stay at Mt Everest Base Camp and its will be a story to tell to our grandchildren. hehehehehe

coz i always believe if u can think about it so u can do it.