Flag of Myanmar
Myanmar’s flag has three equal horizontal stripes of yellow, green and red with a large white five-pointed star across all three. Myanmar’s Union Flag Law of 2010 says the yellow stands for unity, wisdom and happiness among all the national races, the green for peace and fertility, the red for bravery and decisiveness, and the white star for purity, honesty, compassion and power.
Easily confused with
- Flag of GhanaThree stripes and a five-pointed star in the centre; Ghana’s are red, gold and green with a black star.
- Flag of BoliviaYellow, green and red stripes; Bolivia’s run red, yellow, green from the top, with no white star.
- Flag of LithuaniaLithuania’s flag is three equal horizontal stripes of yellow, green and red, yellow at the top. The constitution names the colours without giving them a meaning; the Lithuanian national encyclopedia (VLE) reads yellow as the sun, light and prosperity, green as the beauty of nature, freedom and hope, and red as the land, courage and the blood shed for the homeland.
How to read it
Section 437 of Myanmar’s 2008 constitution shows the State Flag as a picture and says a law will be made about it. The Union Flag Law (State Peace and Development Council Law No. 8/2010) of 21 October 2010 fixes a model flag 2.74 m long and 1.83 m high (9 by 6 feet), so 3:2, divided into three stripes of yellow, green and red, each a third of the height. A large white star with its top point at the middle of the length points straight up. The law gives the colours as Pantone 116 (yellow), 361 (green) and 1788 (red), and says the three colours recall the tricolour flown in the struggle for independence. It repealed the State Flag Law of 1974, and forbids flying the flag at half-mast without the government’s order. The flag was adopted on 21 October 2010, Store norske leksikon (SNL) records.
Also searched as: burma flag, flag of myanmar, myanmar flag, myanmar flag meaning.
How the star is placed
The law sets the star by distances on its 9-by-6-foot model: the top point 1 foot (30 cm) from the top edge, the two lower points 1 foot from the bottom edge, and each point 2 feet 7.2 inches (79 cm) from the next. That makes the star two thirds of the flag’s height, centred along its length.
The flag it replaced
The flag of 1974 to 2010 was red with a blue canton by the pole, holding two white ears of rice inside a white cogwheel, ringed by fourteen white stars for the country’s seven states and seven other regions, SNL notes.
Telling it from the flags of Lithuania and Ghana
Lithuania’s flag has the same colours in the same order, yellow, green and red from the top, in three equal stripes, but no star, and since 2004 its proportions have been 3:5, SNL notes; Lithuania’s constitution names the colours. Ghana’s flag has a five-pointed star in the centre too, but its stripes are red, gold and green, and its star is black and sits in the gold stripe, as Ghana’s mission to the United Nations describes it.
Read next
- Next in Asian flagsFlag of the PhilippinesThe Philippine flag has a blue stripe over a red one and a white equilateral triangle at the pole, holding a golden sun with eight rays and a golden five-pointed star in each corner. The flag law fixes the design without a meaning; the meaning usually given, as in the Daily Tribune and Store norske leksikon, is the sun’s eight rays for the first eight provinces to rise against Spanish rule and the three stars for Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of AngolaAngola’s flag is red over black with a yellow emblem in the centre: part of a cogwheel, a machete and a five-pointed star. Its constitution says the red is the blood shed by Angolans under colonial oppression, in the liberation struggle and in defence of the country, and the black is the African continent; the cogwheel stands for workers and industry, the machete for peasants, farming and the armed struggle, the star for international solidarity and progress, and their yellow for the country’s wealth.
More asian flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines, squares and rectangles or stars.
Sources
- The Union Flag Law (Myanmar, State Peace and Development Council Law No. 8/2010), The Union Flag Law, State Peace and Development Council Law No. 8/2010, 21 October 2010 (official English translation), Myanmar Information Management Unit (MIMU), Sections 2–5, 19 and Annexure
- Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, 2008 (Constitute Project), Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (2008, rev. 2015), Section 437 (English translation), Constitute Project, Section 437
- Myanmars flagg og våpen (Store norske leksikon), Lars Roede, “Myanmars flagg og våpen”, Store norske leksikon, Store norske leksikon, Introduction
- Lithuania 1992 (rev. 2019) Constitution, Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, Article 15 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article 15
- Litauens flagg og våpen (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon, “Litauens flagg og våpen”, Store norske leksikon, Introduction
- Ghana Flag & Coat of Arms (Permanent Mission of Ghana to the UN), Permanent Mission of Ghana to the United Nations, “Ghana Flag Coat of Arms & National Anthem”, Permanent Mission of Ghana to the United Nations, The national flag
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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