Flag of Thailand

What the flag means

The meaning is unofficial. The common reading follows the motto 'nation, religion, king': red for the land and its people, white for religion and blue for the monarchy. Blue was also King Vajiravudh's own colour.

History

King Mongkut introduced a red flag with a white elephant in 1855. In 1916 King Vajiravudh replaced it with red and white stripes; a popular story says he had seen the elephant flag hung upside down. On 28 September 1917 he made the middle stripe blue. The change is linked both to Siam joining the Allies in the First World War and to blue as the colour of Saturday, the day of his birth. The Flag Act of 1979 sets the current specifications.

In Thai it is called Thong Trairong, the 'tricolour flag'. Costa Rica's flag has the same stripe pattern with the colours reversed.

Earlier flags of Thailand

1. 1855–1893Red with a white elephant
2. 1893–1916Red with a white elephant in royal regalia
3. 1916–1917Red with two white stripes and no blue

Flags of Thailand's neighbours

• Myanmar
• Cambodia
• Laos
• Malaysia