The Prayer Flags of Anandapur at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Floating in the breeze above the heads of the tourists bustling through the park hang the colorful prayer flags of the Anandapur Township in Disney's Animal Kingdom. A beautiful touch of detailed Imagineering that comes straight from the countryside of the Himalayas. The exquisitely detailed Anandapur goes out of it's way to blur the lines of fantasy and reality, it is easy to forget you are in a Florida theme park. You'll find several types of prayer flags have been used throughout Disney's Asian landscape, but my favorites are the traditional Lung ta.



The Prayer Flags of Anandapur at Disney's Animal Kingdom


The Lung ta are horizontal flags of a square or rectangular shape, that have been connected their top edges to a long string. Commonly hung on a diagonal line (from high to low between two objects) in the true Himalayan region you can find them strung across the tops of temples, buildings, and even crossing the voids of mountain passes. It's walking beneath the flags of Anandapur that I find Animal Kingdom to be at it's most magical.


Prayer Flags On The Path To Forbidden Mountain


Traditional prayer flags promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. It's believed that the mantras written on the flags will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. The five colors of the traditional flags represent the elements; blue for the sky, white for the air, red for fire, green for water, and yellow for earth. As the flags in the wind deteriorate the good wishes upon them become a part of the fabric of the universe. Rather than being printed with mantras, the Disney lung ta are printed with non-theistic symbols and animal, so they're really more flag than prayer. I find them beautiful none-the-less.

Have you stopped to consider the prayer flags fluttering in the wind of Disney's Animal Kingdom? Do yo