Tall poles with fluttering prayer flags are omnipresent across Bhutan. You will see them in front of the houses, at monasteries and dzongs, at clearing in a forest, on either side of the bridges, edge of the villages and high passes. These prayer flags carry the Buddhist mantras in the air as they flutter in the mountain breeze. Here is a cluster of those flags at Chele la pass, overlooking the mountains adjoining Jomolhari.
An elderly woman turns a prayer wheel at Kyichu Lhakhang in Paro, Bhutan.
In Bhutan, it is a tradition to retire from everyday life after a certain age and spend rest of the life wearing a monk’s robe in a spiritual quest. A small group of elderly men and women usually congregate in Paro’s Kichu Lahkhang every day, spending their time turning the prayer wheels.
Kichu Lhakhang (lhakhang = temple in dzongkha) is one of the oldest living temples in Bhutan, and played an instrumental role in spreading Bhuddhism to Bhutan.
A chorten or stupa and prayer flags in the middle of a field in Punakha district, rural Bhutan.
You will find vertical prayer flags fluttering in every house and every free space in Bhutan. They are meant to spread the holy mantras in the air. Chortens, also found frequently, are either memorials for the dead or meant to ward off evil. These structures are ubiquitous in Bhutan and are an essential part of the country’s rural and urban landscape.
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