Wasted Prayers Project

The Wasted Prayers project is a body of environmental art by Bhutanese artist Asha Kama Wangdi (commonly known as Asha Kama) that repurposes discarded synthetic prayer flags collected from Bhutan's mountains into large-scale installations. The work addresses a growing contradiction at the intersection of Buddhist devotional practice and environmental degradation: the mass production of polyester prayer flags printed with toxic inks, designed for durability rather than the impermanence central to Buddhist philosophy, has led to significant pollution across the Himalayan region. Wangdi's response has been to salvage these "wasted prayers" and transform them into artworks that provoke reflection on the consequences of unchecked desire, consumer culture, and the gap between spiritual intention and material impact.^[1]

The project gained wide international recognition when Wangdi's monumental installation The Windhorse (Lungta) was commissioned for the Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now exhibition at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art in New York in 2024, placing Wangdi and a community of contemporary Bhutanese artist-collaborators in the international spotlight for the first time. The exhibition subsequently travelled to Wrightwood 659 in Chicago, further extending the reach of Wangdi's environmental message.^[2]

Background

Prayer flags (lungta or dar cho) are one of the most recognisable symbols of Tibetan Buddhism, traditionally printed on cotton cloth with sacred mantras, prayers, and auspicious symbols. According to tradition, the wind carries the printed prayers into the ether, blessing the surrounding area and all sentient beings. The flags are intended to deteriorate over time — their gradual disintegration symbolising the Buddhist teaching of impermanence (anicca) — and are periodically replaced with fresh ones.^[1]

However, from the second half of the twentieth century onwards, mass production transformed the prayer flag industry. Cotton was increasingly replaced by polyester and nylon, vegetable-based inks by synthetic dyes, and hand-block printing by industrial screen printing. The resulting flags are far more durable than their traditional counterparts — precisely the opposite of what Buddhist philosophy prescribes. When hoisted in the vast quantities that devotional enthusiasm demands, these synthetic flags resist decomposition, accumulate in trees and on mountainsides, and shed microplastics into soil and waterways. In Nepal, wildlife has been documented becoming entangled in discarded flags; in Tibet, yaks have been caught in tangled masses of synthetic cloth.^[1]

Artistic Vision

Asha Kama Wangdi first conceived the Wasted Prayers project in the late 1980s while studying at the Kent Institute of Art and Design in England, where he earned a first-class honours degree in 1994. Removed from Bhutan and confronted with Western perspectives on environmentalism and material culture, Wangdi began working with discarded prayer flags, using the term "wasted prayers" to encapsulate the paradox he observed: flags hoisted with sincere devotional intent but producing negative environmental consequences. The prayers, he argued, were "wasted" in a double sense — spiritually undermined by their material permanence and physically wasted as litter across sacred landscapes.^[3]

Wangdi's approach is rooted in his dual training in both traditional Bhutanese religious art — learned through an apprenticeship at the National Fine Arts Centre in Thimphu — and contemporary Western art practice. This bicultural perspective allows him to critique the prayer flag industry from within the Buddhist tradition rather than from an external, secular position. His work does not reject devotional practice but calls for a return to its original principles: natural materials, impermanence, and mindfulness of environmental impact.^[4]

The Windhorse (Lungta)

The most celebrated work to emerge from the Wasted Prayers project is The Windhorse (Lungta), a large-scale installation commissioned for the Rubin Museum's Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now exhibition. The piece features five horses emerging from a cascade of falling prayer flags in yellow, green, white, red, and blue — the five traditional colours representing the five elements and states of mind that must be in harmony according to Tibetan Buddhist philosophy: yellow (wisdom, earth), red (compassion, fire), green (equanimity, water), white (purity, air), and blue (endurance, space).^[2]

The lungta — literally "wind horse" — is a mythical Tibetan creature from pre-Buddhist tradition, later adopted into Buddhist philosophy, that combines the speed of the wind and the strength of the horse to carry prayers from earth to the heavenly realm. It is associated with positive energy, life force, and good fortune. By constructing his windhorse from salvaged, tattered prayer flags, Wangdi transforms discarded sacred material into a powerful new symbol: the very refuse of devotional excess becomes the vehicle of its own redemption.^[2]

Reception and Impact

The Reimagine exhibition, which ran from March 2024 and subsequently moved to Wrightwood 659 in Chicago from November 2024 to February 2025, brought Wangdi's work to an international audience for the first time. Critical reception was overwhelmingly positive, with reviewers noting the installation's ability to bridge contemporary environmental concerns with centuries-old spiritual tradition. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review featured an extensive interview with Wangdi, and The Art Newspaper highlighted the work as a standout of the Rubin's final exhibition in its New York space.^[5]

In recognition of his broader contributions to art and community, Asha Kama Wangdi was awarded the National Order of Merit (Gold) by His Majesty the King of Bhutan in 2010. He is also the co-founder of VAST (Voluntary Artists' Studio, Thimphu), Bhutan's foremost institution for contemporary art, and his Wasted Prayers project is widely regarded as the most internationally significant body of work yet produced by a Bhutanese contemporary artist.^[2]

References

1. "Interview with Asha Kama Wangdi." Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.
2. "Asha Kama Wangdi, VAST Bhutan." Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art.
3. "Educator Insight: Khytul on Asha Kama Wangdi." Wrightwood 659.
4. "Asha Kama Wangdi." BhutanArt Gallery.
5. "The Himalayas come to Manhattan." The Art Newspaper.
6. "Unveiling the Bhutanese Artistic Visions at the Rubin Museum." VAST Bhutan.