[VIRTUAL ARTIFACT]
THE PRAYER FLAG PROJECT
The META Foundation, in collaboration with VAST Bhutan and the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, produced 1080 unique virtual artifacts designed from original assets by Asha Kama, a leading Bhutanese artist.
Sales supported local educational programs, and the cleaning of the mountains in Bhutan.
Prayer flags promote peace, compassion, strength and wisdom to benefit all beings across the universe. From handwritten pieces of silk, to woodblock printed cloths, to mass produced prints on synthetic polyester fabrics, they have always been produced through purposeful use of available technologies and materials. Today, prayer flags embrace their digital future as NFTs.
[IMPACT]
-
1. SPREAD YOUR PRAYERS
Send prayers and good wishes evoking and promoting peace, compassion, strength and wisdom to benefit all beings across the universe.
-
2. SUPPORT VAST BHUTAN
Sponsor the contemporary art collective VAST Bhutan. NFT sales will contribute to their educational programs, teaching their students about web3 technologies.
-
3. CLEAN THE MOUNTAINS
Free the mountains surrounding Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital-city, of their accumulating fallen, faded, and entangled polyester prayer flags.
-
4. JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
The META Foundation supports real world issues, from ambitious UN Goals to empowering specific communities through web3 projects and initiatives.
[STORY]
MEANING
Generally, the mantras of prayer flags request protection and positive outcomes from deities for those who hoist them as well as for everyone else. They are typically placed on the high points of mountains where the wind is strong and can carry their invocations further. Pure intention directed to all living beings is most important when hoisting prayer flags.
-
Their ancient forms remain mostly consistent. In Bhutan, the five colors of the cloth reflect symbolic association with elements: white for air, red for fire, green for water, yellow for earth, and blue for space.
SUSTAINABILITY
In contemporary times, prayer flags are largely mass produced in polyester. Though the intentions behind this modern production is to make the flags and their prayers longer-lasting, their synthetic material impedes their assimilation into the ecosystem. Their intrinsic and symbolic ephemerality, with prayers being renewed with each newly raised flag, is also disrupted.
-
Acknowledging the importance of prayer flags’ natural decay within virtual space, the NTFs will interpret their impermanence by fading over the course of several months, reverting to their original state with each transaction. Mindful of blockchain’s own sustainability concerns, these virtual flags are minted on Polygon’s proof of stake network, in which each transaction produces just 0.2g CO2, making it significantly less ecologically taxing than the 124kg of CO2 per transaction on the Ethereum network.
PURE INTENTION
Inspired by Krista Kim’s techist manifesto of 2014, which promotes a metaverse for the benefit and healing of humanity, The Prayer Flag Project consists of 1080 unique NFTs designed from original assets by Asha Kama, a leading Bhutanese artist. It seeks to spread reconciliation and connections around the world through the symbolic gesture of transferring virtual prayer flags from one person to another, blowing benevolent winds throughout the metaverse.
-
While the NFT market has, for the most part, accelerated the commodification of art and greedy speculation, the distribution and cyclical renewal of these prayer flags calls attention to a different and relevant approach to collective thinking that encourages forwarding goodwill, positive intentions, and care along the blockchain, from owner to owner.
PURPOSE
A significant part of the proceeds from the NFT sales will be donated to VAST Bhutan, a contemporary art collective and NGO co-founded in 1998 by Bhutan's leading contemporary artist, Asha Kama. Promoting art and community service among youth, these funds will contribute to their educational programs teaching art students about web3 technologies, opening up a whole new world of possibilities for global exposure and community engagement.
-
In 2021, the META Foundation commissioned Asha Kama to create his first virtual piece, “Windhorse NFT”, as a commentary on both the environment and (im)permanence. The sculpture is made of fallen, faded and entangled polyester prayer flags, which Asha Kama and his students collected from the mountains surrounding Bhutan’s capital-city Thimphu. The sale of each NFT will help fund the collection and repurposing of these fallen flags, breathing new life into the prayers of those who put them there, and sustaining this cultural tradition in the age of commodification and mass consumption.
“These days, we need more love so we hoist more prayer flags. Culturally, they should not last forever, but we print them with permanent ink because we want our prayers to last longer. Virtual prayer flags are both persistent and fleeting.”
— Asha Kama, founder of VAST Bhutan
[ATTRIBUTES]
-
1. PAINTINGS
The 1080 unique NFTs are designed from original paintings by Asha Kama, a leading Bhutanese artist fascinated by the flag’s Windhorse symbolism.
-
2. STAMPS
Each NFT features a prayer stamp, with a Windhorse surrounded by the four great animals symbolizing the cardinal directions, well-being and good fortune.
-
3. WIND
Just as prayer flags are typically placed on the high points of mountains for the wind to carry their invocations further, these NFTs have different wind conditions.
-
4. DECAY
The NFTs interpret their impermanence by fading over the course of several months, reverting to their original state with each transaction.
[RESEARCH]
We sat down with Elena Pakhoutova, Ph.D., the Senior Curator of Himalayan Art at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York to learn more about the deep cultural roots of Prayer Flags, and their digital evolution as NFTs.
[PARTNERS]
