Myanmar

Last modified: 1997-10-23 by rob raeside
Keywords: myanmar | burma | asia | peacock | star | cog wheel | rice | industry | agriculture | ndl |
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Zeljko Heimer, 24-FEB-1996

• Meaning of the flag
• 1948-1974 flag of Burma
• Peacock flag
• Flag of the NDL

See also:

• Burmese peoples
• Shan State

The flag was adopted on 3-JAN-1974, the year when Burma became the Socialist Republic of the Burmese Federation. Since then the state has changed its name, but not its flag. The fourteen stars are for 14 states, the cog wheel and rice are for industry and agriculture.

Zeljko Heimer, 24-FEB-1996

Chris Pinette, 6-JUL-1996

The 1948 flag of Burma is red with a blue canton containing one large white star and five small white stars around it.

The older flag of Burma (taken from a book published in the early 1960's) has also been shown as all red with a gold star in the upper left and five smaller stars arrayed around it.

From "A Pocket Dictionary of Flags" by John Gaunt Jr. published in 1876 [gau1876], the Burmese flag has a white field with a peacock in full color.

John Niggley, 25-JAN-1996

The NDL is the political party led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Wen-Jer Wang, 1996-MAY-27

At the celebration of the 6th anniversary of the elections in Myanmar (Burma) such flags were carried around, also the heads of NDL were wearing stickers with (apparently) the party's flag.

In the News those flags were shown only very briefly, and I cannot describe it completely. So this may serve as a first approximation:
The flag is plain red with a white (or yellow) five-pointed star near the upper hoist corner. In the center there is a yellow symbol which looked to me like a peacock (which is indeed an old national symbol of Myanmar) looking towards the hoist, its tail not spread. There is more in this central symbol (something circular, outlined in yellow).

Harald Müller, 1996-APR-28