 | |
| Use | National flag    |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | 1969 |
| Design | Divided diagonally from the lower hoist-side corner to the upper fly-side corner; the upper triangle is yellow and the lower triangle is orange, with a white dragon holding four jewels in its claws centred along the dividing line and facing away from the hoist[1] |
| Designed by | Mayum Choying Wangmo Dorji |
The national flag of Bhutan (འབྲུག་ཡུལ་རྒྱལ་དར) is one of the national symbols of Bhutan. The flag features the Druk, a dragon from Bhutanese mythology. This alludes to the country's name in Dzongkha: འབྲུག་ཡུལ་ Druk Yul, meaning 'The Thunder Dragon Kingdom', as well as the Drukpa Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism—the dominant religion of Bhutan.
The basic design of the flag by Mayum Choying Wangmo Dorji dates to 1947. A version was displayed in 1949 at the signing of the Indo-Bhutan Treaty. A second version was introduced in 1956 for the visit of Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck to eastern Bhutan; it was based upon photos of its 1949 predecessor and featured a white Druk in place of the green original. The Bhutanese subsequently redesigned their flag to match the measurements of the flag of India, which they believed fluttered better than their own. Other modifications such as changing the red background colour to orange led to the current design, in use since 1969. The National Assembly of Bhutan codified a code of conduct in 1972 to formalize the flag's design and establish protocol regarding acceptable flag sizes and conditions for flying the flag.