Prayer flags in the Himalayas (Nepal)
Pathpoesia Prayer Flag Project:
Background
While
visiting the Tashi
Gomang Stupa outside
Crestone, Colorado during the summer of 2006, I had a vision of fusing poetry
with traditional Tibetan prayer flag forms. In the creation of an American
prayer flag poetics, rooted in Diamond Earth spiritual bardic
lineage dating back to earliest Mindfulness conjurings,
I envisioned the poem itself would continue to play a direct role as Dark Age
protector, instigator, national narrative or personal ego identity shredder.
These
pathpoesia
prayer flags were designed to according to
lung ta style. A small number of these prepared
objects, sanctified by traditional Tibetan prayer flag makers working in exile
in Nepal, were sent to friends as gifts that winter, hoping these poets would
hang the flags from porches, rooftops, across back country rivers, high peaks,
in offices, subways, carrying them into demonstrations, war zones, letting the
flags cast their spells wherever human eyes arising from suffering may pass.
Two
different sets were printed. The first was a 50th anniversary reprint of the original
version of "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. Peter Hale of the Allen Ginsberg
Estate remarked, "I really do see how physically the poem does work in
that format."
A second, redesigned "Howl" prayer flag, was
produced by the Museum of American Poetics Publications in 2009. With the approval of the
Allen Ginsberg Estate, these new sets featured Ginsberg’s final version of “Howl” and also features a Buddha doodle by Allen
Ginsberg. Individual flags are approximately 8.5" (w) x 10" and a set
includes 15 flags, and are printed on a blend of traditional Nepalese flag
cotton and silk, making for a shinier finish than the first, out of print, run.
To
view the original 50th Anniversary “Howl” Prayer Flag Project (2006),
Click
on the blue flag image below.
Click
here to purchase the 2009 final version Howl
Prayer Flag at the MAP Store.
Jim
Cohn
Boulder,
CO
3
March 2007
Revised
29 April 2010
Updated
8 June 2016