Nepalese, Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Flags - What Do The Colours Mean?

Flag of Nepal.

The national colour of Nepal is red. Red stands for boldness. The flag has the colours red, white and blue.

The symbols are the moon and the sun. Several meanings are attached to these symbols.

 I was given 'Tibetan prayer flags, hand made in Nepal.' Also called Nepalese prayer flags . I got them at the World Travel Market which is a trade fair, business to business at Excel in London every February, as well as in other countries at other times of year. 

I have 

What Are Nepalese Prayer Flags For?

I am not a Buddhist and wondered what the flags are for and what I was to do with them. What do the Nepalese and Buddhists do with the prayer flags? They are on a string which links them. 

White for purity.

Are they like the Catholic rosary beads, where you count off your prayers. Or like worry beads, for comfort, for saying mantras, chanting?

At first I left them neatly folded in their packet. Maybe I should give them to somebody else who was a Buddhist, or wanted to become Buddhist.

Eventually, I decided to take them out and look at them.

They are hung outside temples and buildings in Nepal and other Buddhist countries and buildings. The flags are designed to flutter in the wind, and carry the blessings, messages, prayers and hopes of goodwill around the world.

What Are The Colours And What Do They Mean?

Red is the colour of fire.

White is the colour of clouds, air {purity+.

Blue is the colour of the sky, or space.

Green is the colour of  water, seawater, sea/

Yellow is the colour of the earth.

The flags also have animal symbols.

The bear.

The dragon.

Then I opened my other packet of flags. The same colours, red, white, blue, green, yellow.

 Not the same as the others in a smaller size. These had the words Om, ma, ni,padme, hum, repeated once more.

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

If you go to Everest, on the Tibetan side, the north side, you reach the world's highest monastery, Rongbuk,  (some say second highest, but the other one is also in Tibet)_where you will see the flags, and your guide or leader will probably explain the flags to you.

Website Information On The Nepalese Flag

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Nepal

Website Information On Prayer Flags

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rongbuk_Monastery

Kendal Mint Cake For Climbing - Buy it in Britain

 The UK standby for hiking and hill-walking is Kendal mint cake, which comes as a plain white bar but many people prefer the chocolate covered version, a dark chocolate bar with a white centre. Not thin like After Eights, more like the round, hard, solid, circular mint chocolates. You can buy it in the Lake District in England. 

One of the Kendal Mint websites claims that Kendal Mint was taken up Everest by Chris Bonnington, which sounds very likely.

My husband took a bar up Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania.

"Delicious," says my husband. "You don't need it except up on the hill. But it's delicious even when you are up on the hill.

"In Kilimanjaro, a big hill, the highest in Africa, which takes a week to spiral up. On the last morning you get up at 2 am and walk in a large convoy. The route goes up to the rim. You walk clockwise to the highest point. 

 "At least, that was the route I took, we took. There are several routes up.

"When you get to the highest point you might spend twenty minutes there, taking photos, waiting for dawn. By the time I got there I was shivering.

"Then you come back anti-clockwise. And run down the gravel,  

"So, first, I ate my Kendal mint cake. It gives you instant energy. I wolfed it down. In a minute I stopped shivering. It's what you need."

I asked, "How do you manage not to eat it on the way up?"

"You have breakfast before setting off. You can't stop once you are on the way up. You are in a convoy. I must buy some."

I sit at home trying not to eat chocolate or sweets. I once offered to accompany my husband on a trek. He walks faster than I do even around a supermarket. He replied, drily, "You wouldn't enjoy it. Even if you did, if you came with, nobody else would enjoy it."

Useful Websites

Kendal mint cake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendal_Mint_Cake

https://groceries.asda.com/product/mints/romneys-white-mint-cake-chocolate-bar/709323

http://www.stricklandgate-house.org.uk/historic-kendal/kendal-mint-cake

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Romneys-Chocolate-Covered-Kendal-Mint/

https://www.kendalmint.co.uk/shop/kmc-nrg-bar-white

https://www.kendalmint.co.uk/our-story

Kilimanjaro trips

https://www.kilimanjarochallenge.com/

Hiking Safety? Madeira and Scotland and Safety Tips

Problem
Is it safe or is it dangerous? I was reading about a woman who complained about being rushed on a tour. The organizers answered that areas were cut off and the tour was re-routed because of a fatality. I then started investigating falls.

In Madeira, one person said that there were several fatalities in a year. Another commentator said that there are about 30-40 fatalalities in Scotland every year.

Safety Tips
You are told, warned, not to walk alone. But if the faster walkers charge ahead, the slower people are left behind.

Having a phone with you is a help if you are alone and fall. No help if you are in front or behind and slip and are killed instantly.

Insurance
Does your insurance cover you for the activity you planned? In the USA I found that the insurance I had would not cover the snowmobile activities.

Does your insurance cover for:
1 Medical bills and hospitals
2 Repatriation of an injured person
3 Repatriation of a dead body.

An additional cost might be accommodation for a companion if your return home is delayed.  As the saying goes, better safe than sorry.

Despite this, hiking and even bungy jumping attract tourists every year. Why climb mountains? For the fresh air. For the views. Because the exercise makes you feel fit and feel good. Because of the challenge.

As famous climber Mallory reputedly once said when asked why he climbed Everest, 'Because it's there'.

Useful Websites

Cautions and Mishaps News
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g189167-i435-k2035201-Levadas_claim_yet_another_life-Funchal_Madeira_Madeira_Islands.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/a-new-record-for-scotlands-misleading-mountains-this-year-they-claimed-54-lives-the-freedom-to-climb-1468487.html
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2104750/dodging-death-cristiano-ronaldos-birthplace-madeira

Safety Advice
http://www.scotland.police.uk/keep-safe/mountain-and-outdoor-safety
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/portugal
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/portugal-travel-advisory.html

Travel
visitmadeira.com
http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/useful-info/walks/notice-to-walkers-and-listof-walks 
(Ends with safety tips)
madeira-tourist.com
visitscotland.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, atuhro and speaker.

Advice and Memories Of A Serial Trekker and Walker

Problem
"Will I be able to cope with a trek to Annapurna base camp, (in Pakistan), after managing my trek in Indonesia?"

Answer
Trekkers write to each other for advice. They ask, "What's it like climbing such and such a peak? Who should I book through?"

Story
Our local international expert has done 15 treks, including Everest and Kilimanjaro, and plans two more this year. He has an ambition to climb all the 3000+ metre peaks in Indonesia, having done the top three.

How High Is Too High
I have to type fast to catch his reply. "You start with the lower shorter walks and climbs and find out how you cope with the heights and altitude. My friend from the last trek in Indonesia has been within 404 meters of the next climb. That's only an hour and a half's extra walk.

I am going on a walking holiday, to Romania. My first ever walking holiday. I might practise walking, from my desk twice a day, to the bathroom, just to get fit.

Other members of my family do marathons. They run up and down 14 flights of stairs twice a day, at first just running, then after he first week, for more challenge and achievement, adding wights of rucksacks continuing cans of drink.

I ask, "What was it like last year, walking in Greece?"

Our expert says: "We usually drive to a different starting point each day. We could be walking around the mountain. Or along by a beach, like we did in Greece. Or up a volcano, like we did in Indonesia. It depends on the country."

Walking In Greece
"In Greece we walked near Olympia, which is a 40 minute driver from the west coast on the mainland. During, before or after the walking holiday we could visit the ancient Greek site of Olympus which has a museum open to the public for a fee.

"Although we were walking, some of us hired cars. Often the group organiser hires a car. We then share as much as we can between drivers and non-drivers. This cuts the cost, and saves time. You enjoy the company, for socialising. A practical point is to keep the group together en route to the starting point so nobody gets lost or delays the others. Coming back you all arrive at the hotel not in a close convoy but more or less the same time in time for dinner together.

"Athens is on the isthmus - a piece of linking land. The land passage is not a causeway, much bigger, although it looks narrow on the map. There is also an inland sea, but the sea doesn't violate its linked land characteristic.

Walking in Greece
"In Greece, if you wanted to go from Olympia to Troy on the northern side you either drove all the way back via Athens or had to catch the ferry. This was a non-walking alternative for people like me. Anybody who twists an ankle or who won't want to be too strenuous usually have an alternative for one day or more of a walking holiday."

Tips
"If you are mountain climbing, like to Annapurna base camp, you need evacuation insurance, to pay for a helicopter to rescue you. Nobody carries thousands of pounds with them trekking up a mountain. And the helicopter company knows from experience nobody will pay after they've been reduced.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please follow me and share my posts.

Cooking while camping overnight up a mountain update with websites at end

I was astonished to hear that Sherpas had cooked a birthday cake on the way up Everest for one of the climbers. How do you cook on a mountainside? How do you cook when you don't have sherpas and yaks or other animals carrying all your cooking gear?

When you are climbing a mountain and eating lunch or company overnight you may want to cook. But because you are walking uphill you want your cooking get to be as light as possible.

A second consideration is that you cannot take some kinds of larger cooking devices on airplanes when flying to foreign destination.

One solution is the compact solid fuel stove which cove with fuel. All you need is your food, your match or lighter and a small saucepan (or a cook in the pan meal if you can find one or make one with a base suitable for over a stove like this).

I have photographed it with a spoon, knife and fork to show how small it is. 

Pull it out of the pack and you find a small hanged metal container which opens from the centre like a double door. The white fuels are shown.

This is what it looks like with a normal size frying pan on top.

This model of cooker is designed in two positions, one for use when in normal weather conditions and the other when there is wind. This one was bought from Amazon for a trip up a mountain in Indonesia.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

How Everest Got Its Name

Everest is named after the man who did the measuring for years across India.
His name was pronounced Eve - rest.
But it has become Ever-ist.
His home is being made into a museum.