Sangye Lama-Production Manager: Prayer Flags, Amulets and Buddhist Ritual Items

One of the most humble and kind persons, Mr. Sangya Lama is our prayer flag and Buddhist ritual item’s production manager. He along with his family are one of the most important partners in our business. He comes from the Yolmo community who came down to Kathmandu from the Yolmo region of Nepal.

"My father is a traditional Thanka painter. He has a vast knowledge regarding Thanka, prayer flags and Tibetan products. As he is well versed in Tibetan language, he writes the prayers and texts accurately. He even teaches the new generation of our family about the literature, arts, history and hopes that the new generation would continue to promote Buddhism and world peace through the teachings of Buddha. It is a blessing to have him with us as his knowledge helps us immensely in the production of prayer flags, thangka, Buddhist ritual objects like protection amulets, Sungkhor Butti, Talismans, Wall Hanging Banners and many other things".

In our associate production house, we have a team of about 15 artisans who are employed to work on prayer flags, ritual items and wall banners. As he undertook many fair trade seminars, he follows the core values very sincerely and maintains a healthy and safe environment in the production house. Each of the product is divided into separate departments. For prayer flags, we have a cutting and tailoring section along with printing and finishing section. For protection amulets, talisman and sungkhor butti, we have a separate division. Wall Hanging banners and other fabric ritual items are divided into tailoring, embroidery and finishing sections.

We have about 80 various kinds of prayer flags that are produced within our production house. With diverse choices of fabrics and material such as cotton, silk, polyester, terry cotton, velvet & paper, we employ two techniques of printing prayer flags; screen print and wooden block print.  

"To make prayer flags, you should have adequete knowledge of mantras and deities. The mantras needs to be scripted correctly, after which our expert carpenter carves the mantras and deities on a wooden block print. My father reads each line carefully and approves once he is certain that everything is correct and as per the ancient scripture".

The production of prayer flag is environmentally friendly. It does not really require a huge working space. Limited use of technology ensures that the traditional craft is still employed and carried on to pass to the new generation. As prayer flags are of high religious nature, we make sure that we make them in the most pure manner.

As for the amulets and talisman, the mantra binding is done as per the traditional Tibetan scripture. Some of our amulets are also consecrated by the Lamas in Boudhanath, Kathmandu. Other ritual objects are carefully designed to signify the Buddhist teachings and are made strictly as per the age old texts and scriptures.

We are proud to be associated with Sangye Lama and his family who are working towards spreading the peaceful messages of Buddhism through their production of prayer flags, amulets, ritual items and many other products.