In every monastery or stupa you must have noticed red band paint on top of the building with white/yellow circle painted within the red band. What does that represent? Well that painting is known as Keymar and it throws a signal that the building is either monastery or chorten to the on lookers.
The Keymar is a wide band around the external walls of a building that marks the structure as a sacred religious place.
The Keymar is usually red in colour but in certain Lhakhang and Choetens the Keymar is also black or grey in colour.
The Keymar is left simple or is usually framed by Bogh on the upper and lower sides with a timber lintel band.
On the Keymar at intervals, round motifs to represent the Sun and the Moon are often painted on or installed in plates made of copper plated with gold.
In tantric iconography the sun disc and moon disc are the customary seats for both buddhas and yidams. The sun symbolizes jnana, or wisdom, while the moon is a symbol of bodhichitta, or compassion.
The Keymar is located along the upper levels of the walls of a building or Choeten. Where there are Rabsel, the Keymar is installed or painted in line with the upper middle level of the Rabsel but is in general never placed below a Rabsel.
