^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Bhutan

Druk-Gyal-Khab (Druk-Yul)

by Sammy Kanadi
Flag adopted 1969, coat of arms adopted 1980.

Meaning and description
History

Meaning and Description

Bhutan is a Bhuddhist state where power is shared by the king and government. The country's name in the local dialect means Land of the Dragon. In Bhutan, thunder is believed to be the voices of dragons roaring. In about 1200, a monestary was set up called the Druk (Thunder Dragon) with a sect called the Drukpas, named after it. The name and the emblem of the dragon have been associated with Bhutan ever since. The dragon on the flag is white to symbolize purity.

The two colors of the flag, divided diagonally, represent spiritual and temporal power within Bhutan. The orange part of the flag represents the Drukpas monasteries and Buddhist religious practice, while the saffron yellow field denotes the secular authority of the dynasty.

Regarding the dragon, it represents Druk, the Tibetan name for the kingdom of Bhutan. The jewels clamped in the dragon's claws symbolize wealth. The snarling mouth represents the strength of the male and female deities protecting the country.
Source: Ultimate Pocket Flags of the World, DK Publishing Inc., 1997
Phil Nelson, 4 March 1999

Regarding the colours:
Smith (1975) uses orange and red-orange respectively
DK Pocket Book (1997) uses saffron yellow and orange (same as used by Smith for upper triangle!)
Album des Pavillons (1995) mixes both: saffron yellow of DK Pocket Book and red-orange of Smith
Pedersen (1970) uses proportion 4:5, orange and maroon, and a dragon facing the hoist
Ivan Sache, 21 Jun 1999

The Kingdom of Bhutan has no Bill of Rights (Vagnat and Poels, 2000).
Ivan Sache, 24 December 2002

What seems to be the official website of the Bhutan tourism ministry at http://www.kingdomofbhutan.com/kingdom.html describes the flag as yellow over orange, with the shades used in the illustration are close if not identical to those in Sammy Kanadi's image above. The dragon is a reference to the local name of the country, according to the tourism ministry site. Druk-yul is Bhutanese for Bhutan; druk means dragon.
Joe McMillan, 21 February 2003

History

In use since the middle of the 19th century, form of the dragon altered a little in the beginning of the 1960s.
Mark Sensen 20 December 1995

Smith (1975) mentions in the past "close relations with the emporers of China whose flag was golden yellow with a dragon"

Ivan Sache, 21 Jun 1999

The flag of Bhutan was yellow with a dragon, taken surely from China. It was in use in the 19th century, and was recognized in 1912 when the British took the protectorate.

Before 1960 the resih orange part (meaning Buddhism) was added. The diagonal line was at first from upper hoist to lower fly and later from lower fly to upper hoist.

Bhutanese flag in 1960 (from photo):
by Jaume Ollé

It is not clear whether the dragon was always green (until c.1965) and later white, or whether white was used before. A Bhutanese Flag c.1965 (from an encyclopaedia) shows a white dragon.
Jaume Ollé, 6 Feb 2000

4:5 by Martin Grieve

On page 70 of Pedersen (1970) is the Bhutan state flag, diagonally halved with upper hoist gold and lower fly brownish. Proportions are 4:5. I have drawn it with RGB 255-204-0 and RGB 153-0-0 respectively. These colours of course are open to speculation, but they do seem to differ somewhat from the Bhutanese national flag in use today (the dragon faces the fly, and colours are orange-yellow/orange). Smith (1975c) gives us "Usage initiated in the nineteenth century" and of course, Znamierowski (2000) agrees here. "Flags of the world" by Barraclough and Crampton (1978) sheds more light, reporting "the present exact form of the flag was adopted when Bhutan entered the United Nations".

So what about the image here? I presume many variants were in existence in the nineteenth century, as it is an extremely complicated design to standardise - at least in those days! All I can surmise is that it was in use from 1800's to whenever Bhutan joined the UN. The "Observers book of flags" (1966 edn.) also agrees that the dragon is *white*, but confuses the issue by describing lower fly colour as "red" - very nebulous! No literature at my disposal ever shows *green* as reported by Jaume Ollé. But of course - who is to know exactly what the situation was at that time?
Martin Grieve, 21 February 2003

The information I have, gleaned from William Crampton, is that the present form of the flag dates from c1965, and that the Kingdom of Bhutan was founded in 1910. The colours are given by the Flag Institute of Great Britain as saffron over orange-red (PMS116 and PMS165 although I think perhaps that this could be bettered?).
Christopher Southworth, 21 February 2003

Fahnen / Flaggen