Flag of Mongolia

How to read it

Article 12 of the Constitution of Mongolia (1992) describes the flag: red, blue and red, the blue a third of the flag, the golden Soyombo on the red stripe next to the pole, and a height to length of 1:2. The Law on State Symbols of 20 May 1994 repeats this and adds that the flag is made of plain red and blue cloth without pattern, and that every flag, whatever its size, keeps the 1:2 of the model attached to the constitution. The present design was adopted on 12 February 1992, Montsame reports; Store norske leksikon says the colours were revised on 8 July 2011.

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What the Soyombo shows

Store norske leksikon lists the parts of the Soyombo from the top: a flame, the sun and moon, a triangle, a rectangle, a yin-yang, a rectangle and a triangle. The sign comes from the Soyombo script that the monk Zanabazar devised in 1686 for writing Mongolian, where it marked the beginning and end of a text. The encyclopedia says the sun, moon and fire are an inheritance from the Xiongnu, who lived in Mongolia before the common era, and that the taijitu, yin and yang, is an ancient sign in many East Asian cultures, Mongolia’s among them.

The star removed in 1992

The flag introduced on 10 June 1945 had a gold five-pointed star above the Soyombo, a sign of socialism, Store norske leksikon says. The star came off in 1992: the encyclopedia gives 12 January 1992, and Montsame gives 12 February 1992 as the date the present design was adopted.

State Flag Day

A law passed in 2008 made 10 July, the eve of the Naadam festival, State Flag Day, and it has been kept since 2009, Montsame reports. In national mourning, the Law on State Symbols has the flag dipped by 45 degrees or lowered to two thirds of the pole.