[ upon the coming into force of the ]Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma has a similar ratio and background colours as the previous flag but with different charge in the canton. The colour representations are also different: white is for purity and virtue; red for bravery and decisiveness; blue for peacefulness and steadiness. It depicts 14 equal-sized white stars encircling a pinion and ear of paddy in a blue canton against a red field. The paddy represents cultivators while the pinion represents workers; the combination symbolizes the cultivators and workers as the basic social classes for building the State. The 14 equal-sized white stars represent the equality and unity of the 14 member states of the Union.
The 14-star flag was hung upside down during the 8888 Uprising
The 8888 Uprising ( my, ၈၈၈၈ အရေးအခင်း), also known as the People Power UprisingYawnghwe (1995), pp. 170 and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) th ...
of 1988 by demonstrators as a sign of protest against the military government. Despite its association with the period of military rule under Ne Win and later the State Peace and Development Council
The State Peace and Development Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် အေးချမ်းသာယာရေး နှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး ကောင်စီ ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the offi ...
, the 1974 flag is used by demonstrators in the 2021 Myanmar protests, alongside the 1948 flag.
Vertical style
Current flag
When hanging or depicting vertically, the yellow must be on left and the star must point to left.
Previous flags
1948 flag
When hanging or depicting vertically, the blue canton must be in the upper hoist, and the stars in the canton must point to the left.
Influence of pre-independence anti-colonial flags
The Tricolours
In 1930, the Dobama Asiayone
Dobama Asiayone ( my, တို့ဗမာအစည်းအရုံး, ''Dóbăma Ăsì-Ăyòun'', meaning ''We Burmans Association'', DAA), commonly known as the Thakhins ( my, သခင် ''sa.hkang'', lit. Lords), was a Burmese national ...
adopted a tricolour
A tricolour () or tricolor () is a type of flag or banner design with a triband design which originated in the 16th century as a symbol of republicanism, liberty, or revolution. The flags of France, Italy, Romania, Mexico, and Ireland were ...
( my, သုံးရောင်ခြယ်, ) of yellow, green and red. In 1935, a peacock was added in the centre of the tricolour. In 1938, the leftists from Dobama Asiayone replaced the peacock with a hammer and sickle. Both of the tricolours were widely used by anti-colonialists during British rule. The peacock flag was also used by the Burma Independence Army
The Burma Independence Army (BIA), was a collaborationist and revolutionary army that fought for the end of British rule in Burma by assisting the Japanese in their conquest of the country in 1942 during World War II. It was the first post-c ...
and the State of Burma
The State of Burma (; ja, ビルマ国, ''Biruma-koku'') was a List of World War II puppet states#Japan, Japanese puppet state created by Japan in 1943 during the Japanese occupation of Burma in World War II.
Background
During the early stage ...
adopted it as the national flag from 1943 to 1945. In 1943, a stylized version of the peacock was introduced. This version was used by the Burma Defense Army (with the peacock in red) and as a variant of the national flag by the State of Burma (with the peacock in gold). There are two songs with the same name, "" (meaning: "Tricolour Song"), composed by two different composers about the meaning behind the Tricolour symbolism and the hope of Burmese people.
In these tricolours, the color yellow symbolizes the Sasana (Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
) and education, green represents staple grains, crops, minerals and jewelry, red signifies bravery or courage, and the peacock represents the Konbaung
The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...
. The hammer and sickle represent workers and peasants, respectively.
The Resistance Flag
In 1945, when the Burma National Army changed sides and fought together with local resistance forces against the Japanese, a new flag, with a red field charged with a white star in the upper hoist, was adopted as the "Resistance Flag."
Influences
The tricolours and the resistance flag have been depicted as "national flags" together with the pre-colonial and post-independence national flags. The resistance flag is referred and honoured by the 1948–1974 flag, while all the tricolours are referred and honoured by the current flag.
Proposals
1947 proposals
In 1947, the Constituent Assembly of the Union of Burma
Constituent or constituency may refer to:
Politics
* An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization
* Advocacy group or constituency
* Constituent assembly
* Constituencies of Namibia
Other meanings
* Const ...
formed a preparatory committee for State flag, State seal and State anthem. That committee held a flag design contest, and the flag designed by Maung Win won the first prize. There was a dispute at the committee's meeting in August 1947 whether or not the peacock should be added further to the proposed State flag; but after long discussions, the committee decided that the peacock should be rejected.[
File:Flag of Burma (1948-1974).svg, Flag designed by Maung Win, which won the first prize at the flag design contest (1947)
]
2006–2007 proposals
A new design for the national flag was proposed on 10 November 2006 during a constitutional convention. The new flag would have consisted of three equally sized green, yellow, and red horizontal stripes, with a white star in the hoist end of the green stripe.
In September 2007, another new design was proposed with a larger white star in the middle and with the stripes in a different order, namely: yellow, green, and red. The proposal was a version of Burmese Tricolour with the white star.
The flag proposed in September 2007 was included in the new constitution, and was accepted with the 2008 referendum.
Flag of Myanmar (2006 proposal).svg, 2006 proposal
Flag of Myanmar.svg, 2007 proposal
2019 proposals
The ruling National League for Democracy
The National League for Democracy ( my, အမျိုးသား ဒီမိုကရေစီ အဖွဲ့ချုပ်, ; Abbreviation, abbr. NLD; Burmese abbr. ဒီချုပ်) is a liberal democratic political party in Myanm ...
(NLD) proposed a series of constitutional amendments in July 2019, including one to change the national flag. Four political parties, the NLD, SNLD, ZCD and NUP proposed four new designs for the flag. The NLD proposed changing the national flag as they do not believe that the flag adopted in 2010 has the full support of the people of Myanmar. Their proposed flag was based on the flag adopted by the country at independence and consisted of a red field with a blue canton in the upper hoist. Within the blue canton is a large white star representing the union which is surrounded by 14 smaller white stars representing the states and regions of the country.
Flag of Myanmar (2019 proposal).svg, The NLD's proposal
File:Flag of Myanmar - Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD)'s proposal 2019.svg, The SNLD's proposal
File:Flag of Myanmar - Zomi Congress for Democracy (ZCD)'s proposal 2019.svg, The ZCD's proposal
File:Flag of Myanmar - The National Unity Party (NUP)'s proposal 2019.svg, The NUP's proposal
Flags before 1948
File:Golden Hintar flag of Burma.svg, Flag used in the Hanthawaddy Kingdom
( Mon) ( Burmese)
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Pegu
, common_name = Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Kingdom / Ramannya (Ramam)
, era = Warring states
, status = Kingdom
, event_pre ...
(–1552)
File:Flag of Konbaung Dynasty (Nonrectangular).svg, Flag used as national flag of Burma under Konbaung Dynasty
The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...
(–1885)
File:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg, Union Flag
The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...
of United Kingdom used as the State flag of British Burma (1886 – 1942 ; 1945 – 4 January 1948)
File:British Burma 1937 flag.svg, National flag of British Burma (6 February 1939 – 30 March 1941; 1945 – 3 January 1948)
File:Flag of Burma (1941–1942).svg, Provisional national flag of British Burma (30 March 1941 – 1942)
File:Flag of Japan (1870–1999).svg, Provisional flag of Japanese Military Administration of Burma (1942–1943)
File:Flag of Burma 1943.svg, State flag of the State of Burma (1 August 1943 – 1945)
File:Flag of the State of Burma (Stylized version).svg, Stylized variant design of the flag of the State of Burma (1943–1945)
Gallery
File:Myanmar Presidential Palace.jpg, Flag of Myanmar flown on the Presidential Palace, Naypyidaw
The Presidential Palace ( my, သမ္မတအိမ်တော်) is the executive office and official residence of the Myanmar head of state and government, the president of Myanmar, and located in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw. The 100-ro ...
File:Flag of Myanmar at Byint Naung Statue Garden Park.jpg, Flag of Myanmar flown at Byint Naung Statue Garden Park in Kawthaung
Kawthaung ( mnw, ကော့ပိ, , ; th, เกาะสอง; , ; ms, Pulodua, ڤولودوا) is a town located in the southernmost part of Myanmar, in the Tanintharyi Region. During British rule in Burma between 1824 and 1948, it was kn ...
.
File:Flag of Myanmar and Tanintharyi Region at 1199 Mountain Peak.jpg, The flag of Myanmar flown alongside the flag of Tanintharyi Region
Tanintharyi Region ( my, တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; Mon: or ; ms, Tanah Sari; formerly Tenasserim Division and subsequently Tanintharyi Division, th, ตะนาวศรี, RTGS: ''Tanao Si'', ...
on 1199 Mountain Peak in Kawthaung.
File:Barack Obama speaks at University of Yangon.jpg, Barack Obama addressing the Burmese public during a speech at the University of Yangon on 19 November 2012. The vertical version of the Union Flag was depicted on the wall behind.
See also
* List of Burmese flags
This is a list of flags used in Myanmar (also known as Burma).
State/Union Flag
Flags of administrative divisions States
Regions
Union territory
Self-administered zones and divisions Self-administered zones
Self-administ ...
* State Seal of Myanmar
The State Seal of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် နိုင်ငံတော်အထိမ်းအမှတ်တံဆိပ ...
* The similar flag of Lithuania
The national flag of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos vėliava) consists of a horizontal Triband (flag), tricolour of yellow, green, and red. It was adopted on 25 April 1918 during Lithuania's first period of independence (in the 20th century) from 191 ...
References
External links
*
Timeline Flag of Myanmar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flag Of Burma
National symbols of Myanmar
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
National flags