Prostration

What it is

Prostration is a way of putting the whole body low, face or forehead near or on the ground, to show reverence or to submit. Writers on the subject separate it from a bow or a kneel: in a prostration, something above the knee, most often the hands, touches the floor. The person stays there for a moment, then rises. The same physical shape carries different meanings in different places. In worship it says that the one praying is small before something greater. In daily life it says that the person opposite is owed respect, whether a ruler, an official, a teacher or an elder.

In religious practice

Several faiths make the prostration part of set prayer. Buddhists count the movements in threes and link them to the Buddha, his teaching and his community. Muslims perform sujud during the five daily prayers and hold that bowing to anything other than God is forbidden. Hindus use eight-limbed and five-limbed prostrations in puja. Jains see it as the surrender of the ego. Sikhs bow before the Guru Granth Sahib and call it mutha tekna. Christians of the Oriental Orthodox churches prostrate at seven fixed prayer times, and Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican clergy lie flat during ordinations. Jews prostrated in earlier centuries, and Baháʼís prostrate as one option within obligatory prayer.

Pilgrimage on the ground

Tibetan Buddhists give prostration its hardest physical form. A preliminary practice called Ngöndro asks for one hundred thousand of them, done to wear down pride. Pilgrims on the road may lie full length after every third step, so that their face touches each part of the route. Many walk this way around a stupa. The whole circuit of Mount Kailash, some fifty-two kilometres, is sometimes made entirely like this and can take about four weeks. Others travel from home to Lhasa, a journey that in some cases runs past two thousand kilometres and takes up to two years.

Bowing to rank

Prostration has also marked rank. In the Yoruba custom of Idobale, a person lowers the body before elders and those in authority. In imperial China the kowtow was required of those appearing before the emperor. Ancient Greek speakers used the word proskynesis for the same kind of homage shown to a ruler or a god. In old Hawaii the practice called kapu moe demanded that everyone lie down when a chief of the highest rank passed, and death could follow for those who did not; chiefs of the next grade sat instead. Other Polynesian peoples are described as keeping similar customs.

Meaning and today

Across traditions the movement carries one shared idea: the self is put lower than what is honoured. Baháʼí writings go further and forbid one person prostrating before another, since that lowers a human being before a human being. Islam takes the same line, reserving the act for God alone. Jews stopped prostrating commonly at some point in the Middle Ages, and a movement among Talmide haRambam works to bring it back into daily worship. Outside religion, the gesture appears in deference to worldly power, in spiritual training and in physical exercise routines. Rules also exist: Orthodox Christians do not prostrate on Sundays or through the Easter season.

How Prostration is kept

An individual or a congregation lowers the body to the ground. In a full prostration the person lies flat, face down, hands or forehead on the floor, then rises. In a partial one the head goes to the ground from a kneeling position. Some traditions make the sign of the cross first, or spread a rug so the face and hands stay clean. In Buddhist practice the movements come in sets of three. Sikhs bow on arriving before the Guru Granth Sahib and again before leaving. Pilgrims repeat the whole movement every few steps along a route.

When and where

Prostration belongs to set prayer rather than to a single season. Muslims make it in each of the five daily prayers. Oriental Orthodox Christians keep seven fixed prayer times a day. Buddhists and Sikhs use it whenever they pray or meet the scripture. Christians prostrate on Good Friday and during Great Lent, Jews on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana, and Ethiopian Jews at Sigd.

The practice is found wherever these faiths are kept, and appears in daily prayer in mosques, Orthodox churches, Hindu and Jain temples and gurdwaras. The sources name Japan, India, China, Syria, Ethiopia, Russia, Yemen, Brazil, Cuba and Dominica among the places it is found. Tibetan Buddhist routes in the Himalayas are the best known, with pilgrims moving to Lhasa and around Mount Kailash.

What Prostration means

To those who keep it, prostration is the body saying what words cannot: that the person is not the highest thing in the room. Buddhists connect each movement with the Buddha, the teaching and the community. Jains describe it as giving up the ego. Muslims see it as praise of God and humility before him. Christians treat it as reverence for God alone, and the prostration of candidates at an ordination is made in front of the altar, understood as a sign of Christ.

Days Prostration is marked

Questions people ask about Prostration

See also

Chota Char DhamFour Himalayan shrines in Uttarakhand, visited in one season each yearKailash Mansarovar YatraA high-altitude pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in TibetHoly FireA fire ceremony in Jerusalem each year, kept by Orthodox Christians before EasterFire templeA consecrated sanctuary where Zoroastrians tend sacred fires and gather for worship

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Prostration on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.