When travelers see flags of various colors, shapes, and designs blowing in the wind on high mountain passes and roof-tops or above rapids in mountain streams, bridges, and monasteries, they know they are somewhere near a Tibetan. The Prayer Flag, or Wind-Horse Flag, can be seen hanging throughout the Tibetan Plateau and indeed, anywhere Tibetans live, such as Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan province s as well as in countries neighboring Southeast China's Tibet Autonomous Region, such as Nepal and Bhutan.

These flags, "Lung Ta" in Tibetan, are called "prayer flags" or "wind-horse flags ," a literal translation of "Lung (wind) Ta (horse)."

Wind-horse flag      Photo: China.org.cn

Wind horses of the early stages referred to fleeces hung on the trees or brushwood. Nowadays, the skulls of flocks and herds can still be found among the Mani piles. In the mind of the Tibetans, wind horse refers to mankind's destiny and fortune, and in some special cases it points to the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, which the ancients believed composed the entire physical universe, and which were also later used in traditional Chinese medicine to explain various physiological phenomena).

If a wind-horse flag is placed at the convergence of nimbuses (halo-like clouds), the symbols on it will create an offering or prayer, which the wind distributes to the world every time it brushes against the flag. This is believed to be useful for the realization of a person's dreams.