what does this symbol mean?
A red flag with a gold sun of forty rays in the centre, holding a red ring crossed by two sets of three red lines

Flag of Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan’s flag is red with a golden sun of forty rays in the centre, and inside the sun the red tunduk, the crown at the top of a Kyrgyz yurt. Kaktus.media gives the forty rays as the forty ancient tribes united into one Kyrgyzstan and the tunduk as the family home and the unity of the country’s peoples; Store norske leksikon gives the rays as the forty tribes the hero Manas is said to have gathered, and both read the red as valour.

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How to read it

The Law on State Symbols of the Kyrgyz Republic (No. 91 of 17 July 2004), as amended in December 2023, describes a rectangle of red cloth with, in its centre, a round sun disc with forty evenly spreading straight golden rays, and inside the disc a red image of the tunduk of a Kyrgyz yurt; the width is three fifths of the length. Every flag must match the standard kept at the President’s residence, and the Cabinet of Ministers approves the technical specification. Parliament first adopted the flag on 3 March 1992, and 3 March has been State Flag Day since 2010.

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Why the rays were straightened in 2023

President Sadyr Japarov signed the law changing the flag on 22 December 2023. The main differences from the flag of 1992 are the shape of the rays, now straight instead of wavy, and the number of crossings in the tunduk, Kaktus.media reported; in the President’s view the sun with wavy rays looked like a sunflower. RFE/RL explained the objection: the Kyrgyz word for sunflower, “kunkarama”, is a metaphor for someone dependent, who bends to the sun. The flag raised on 1 January 2024 differed from the one Parliament had passed: the President’s press secretary said the Cabinet of Ministers had approved a final version in which the forty rays are joined to the tunduk, where the earlier draft had separated them, AKIpress reported. Official documents bearing the 1992 flag stay valid until they expire.

The flag of 1992

The first flag had five designers: Edil Aidarbekov, Mamatbek Sydykov, Bekbosun Zhaichybekov, Sabyr Iptarov and Zhusup Mataev, Kaktus.media records. It was sewn overnight from natural silk by the Kyyal art association and first raised over the government building at 9 in the morning on 4 March 1992. Deputies argued over the colour: some wanted to avoid blue, a colour of mourning in the south of the country, others thought red too close to the flag of the Soviet Union, and red won the vote.

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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research

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