Flag of Sri Lanka

The national flag of Sri Lanka is called the Singha Flag or Lion Flag. It shows a golden lion holding a kastane sword. The lion is on a maroon background. In each corner of the flag, there are four gold bo leaves. The flag has a gold border and two vertical stripes in green and orange. The orange stripe is closest to the lion.

The lion and maroon background stand for the Sinhalese race. The gold border and the four bo leaves show ideas like kindness, compassion, joy, and calmness. The orange stripe represents the Tamils in Sri Lanka, including the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka. The green stripe stands for the Sri Lankan Moors, who are the Muslims of Sri Lanka. The flag shows the unity and diversity of Sri Lanka’s people.

History

Monarchical Sri Lanka

An old painting at the Dambulla Viharaya shows King Dutugemunu with a banner that has a lion carrying a sword. The lion stood for the Sun and the Moon. People thought this was the oldest lion flag of the Sinhalese, but the lion image was damaged in 1957.

British colonial period

The lion flag was used until 1815. That year, the Kandyan Convention ended the rule of Sri Lanka’s last king, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. After that, the Union Flag became the country’s official flag. The government of British Ceylon made its own flag, and Sri Vikrama Rajasinha’s royal standard was taken to England.

Sri Lanka (since 1948)

When Sri Lanka was moving toward independence, leaders remembered the old Lion Flag. It became the national flag in 1948, with small changes in 1953 and a bigger change in 1972. In the 1972 version, the four spearheads on the flag’s corners were replaced with four bo leaves.

Symbolism

The flag of Sri Lanka shows a golden lion holding a kastane sword. The lion is on a maroon background with four gold bo leaves in each corner. The lion and maroon color represent the Sinhalese people. They stand for strength and bravery.

According to the Mahavamsa, the Sinhalese people came from Prince Vijaya. His father was King Sinhabahu, which means “lion hero.” The lion has been a symbol of the Sinhalese people for a long time. It is a big part of Sri Lanka’s flag today.

Symbol	Represents
The Lion	The Sinhala ethnicity and the strength of the nation
The bo leaves	The four Buddhist virtues of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity
The sword of the lion	The sovereignty of the nation
The curly hair on the lion's head	Religious observance, wisdom and meditation
The eight hairs on the lion's tail	The Noble Eightfold Path
The beard of the lion	Purity of words
The handle of the sword	The classical elements of water, fire, air and earth
The nose of the lion	Intelligence
The two front paws of the lion	Purity in handling wealth
Orange stripe	The Tamil ethnicity (including the Hill Country Tamils of Indian ancestry)
Green stripe	The Moor ethnicity
Saffron border	Buddhism and unity among the people
The maroon background	The Sinhala ethnicity
The golden yellow border	Other minority communities of Sri Lanka, such as the Malays, the Burghers, the Indigenous Veddas, the Kaffirs and, the Sri Lankan Chinese, who migrated to Sri Lanka during the 17th–19th centuries.

Colours

The colours of Sri Lanka's flag are defined in a document called "SLS 1: 2020: Specification for the National Flag of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka". This document explains which shades of gold, maroon, green, and orange to use for the flag. These colours represent important ideas and values for the country.

Colours scheme	Yellow	Maroon	Orange	Teal
CMYK	0-26-90-3	0-80-66-42	0-48-100-13	100-0-9-63
HEX	#F7B718	#941E32	#DF7500	#005F56
RGB	247-183-24	148-30-50	223-117-0	0-95-86
Pantone	14-0957 TCX	19-1863 TCX	16-1164 TCX	18-5322 TCX