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images by Tomislav Todorović, 15 February 2014
I discovered another Tibetan religious flag. This time, it is not a Buddhist,
but a bönpo flag. As I said in my previous message, at first the bön religion
was a mix of different rituals and beliefs. Historians still debate at length
and wonder if this religion was as unified as Buddhism was, or if it was a
common name used by Buddhist monks when refering to any non-buddhist religious
element. Among its most characteristic trait was the belief in mountain-deities.
With time, those mountains were linked to mythical ancesters who, in turn, could
be deified. Mountains were important sites of pilgrimage, long before the
arrival of buddhism, and numerous stone pilars (Tib. Doring) and altars have
been discovered on high peaks. The old religion also included royal devotion,
sacrifices and divination.
Confronted to buddhism, the bönpo experienced some decline but never
disappeared. Bön evolved and was very influenced by some buddhist schools,
especially the Nyingmapa, but also influenced them. The bönpo consider their
faith as a world religion, even if it is geographically limited to Tibet, as its
purpose is to save people. The swastika, old symbol of good luck, is very
present in bön and represents eternity, mostly in its anti-clockwise version.
The flag has five horizontal stripes (blue, white, red, green, yellow). In the
middle of the flag there is a golden yungdrung chakshing (g.yung-drung
phyag-shing in Wylie transliteration), which is a bönpo scepter and symbol of
immortality. On each end of the yungdrung there is a square with a swastika. The
squares are shown with a blue swastika on yellow field in one instance, and with
several colours between the arms of the yellow swastika in the other (blue to
the left, red on top, green on the right, and white on the bottom), all on a red
field within yellow border..
Sources:
http://blog.amdotibet.cn/tibetmonk/archives/103962.aspx
http://ravencypresswood.com/2013/09/24/flag-of-the-yungdrung-bon/
Corentin Chamboredon, 10 February 2014
The flag design is certainly an example of the way these two religions
influenced each other: in Buddhist tradition, five colors are associated with
five Dhyani Buddhas, as well as with the cardinal directions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhyani
Whether the use of this color set originated in Buddhism and was adopted by the
Bönpo, or vice versa, is an open question for now. (Or maybe it is not, but I
don't know the answer.)
The use of swastika is another example. (In this case, I'm apt to attribute the
origins of its use to the Buddhism, because the symbol is known to have been
used in India long before the Buddhism was founded.)
Tomislav Todorović, 10 February 2014
I'd say five has been a number of note in the greater Indus region for a long
time, though I don't know exactly how long. Unless we find something better, I'd
go with shared heritage rather than influence one way or the other.
But to demonstrate the influence it also should not have been present in Tibet
in pre-Buddhist times. Wasn't it? I don't know. It reminds me of the
Jainism flag.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 10 February 2014
Tibetan are particularly fond of numerical classifications : the eight
auspicious symbols, the seven precious jewels, the five attributes of sensory
enjoyment, the six symbols of long life, etc. So this could come from anything.
That was the case. Almost all of western Tibet constituted, before the Tibetan
emperor Songtsen Gampo invaded it in the VIIth century, the kingdom of
Zhangzhung. Modern bönpo claim their religion had roots in this old country (some
texts even claim bön was imported from old Persia to Zhangzhung before that),
which had a script and a language different from Tibetan. Archaeologist John
Vincent Bellezza is surveying the remains of this very old culture. The oldest
ruins date back to 1 000 BCE, and there were some cultural continuity until the
XIth century of our era, when the second diffusion of buddhism (or Chidar in
Tibetan) imposed its philosophy to the whole Tibetan plateau, along Tibetan
script and language.
Sources :
http://www.thlib.org/bellezza/
http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=3108
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Zhung
Mount Kailash, which lays in Western Tibet, in an extremely old pilgrimage site
which has been visited for centuries by members of four religions : bön,
buddhism, hinduism and jainism. Cultural exchange rarely happens in a single way,
so why not ?
Corentin Chamboredon, 10 February 2014
I agree with the importance of the number, not only in India, but in
other parts of Asia as well (in China, it seems to be ancient enough
to have been developed independently), but it's the use of this
particular color set that I wanted to stress.
Jainism flag does resemble somewhat. However, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#Asia it is described as being brought
to Tibet with the Buddhism - that is, from India.
Tomislav Todorović, 10 February 2014