Flag of Nepal

Flag of Nepal
The national flag of Nepal (नेपालको झण्डा) is the world's only non-rectangular flag that acts as both the state flag and civil flag of a sovereign country. The flag is a simplified combination of two single pennons (or pennants), known as a double-pennon. Its crimson red is the symbol of bravery and it also represents the color of the rhododendron, Nepal's national flower, while the blue border is the color of peace. Until 1962, the flag's emblems, both the sun and the crescent moon, had human faces, but they were removed to modernize the flag.

The current flag was adopted on 16 December 1962, along with the formation of a new constitutional government. Shankar Nath Rimal, a civil engineer, standardised the flag on the request of King Mahendra. It borrows from the original, traditional design, used throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and is a combination of the two individual pennons used by rival branches of the ruling dynasty.

Historically, triangular shape of the flag in the south Asian region was very common since it was compact in size so the flag furled even with the lowest wind, thus making it visible over long distances. The traces of triangular flags could be found in Hinduism. The flag's history is vague and there are no specific accounts of its creator. Nepal has historically used both quadrilateral flag as well as non quadrilateral flag throughout its history.

The flags of almost all states in South Asia were triangular. A French book about Nepal from 1928 shows a double pennant flag with a green border rather than blue like today. There are other forms of pennant type flags, mostly used in Hindu and Buddhist temples around Nepal. Many accounts date the creation of the double-pennant to King Prithvi Narayan Shah. The flag of the ancient Gorkha kingdom started off as a single triangular War banner of the Shah kings with red colour and various deities and other symbols as symbols in the flag. After Prithvi Narayan Shah unified all small principalities of Nepal, the double-pennon flag began to be the standard flag. According to some historians, the Rana ruler Jung Bahadur changed the symbols of sun and moon into faces of the sun and moon symbolizing the kings as the Rajputs of Lunar dynasty and the Rana themselves as the Rajputs of the Solar dynasty. Nepal has simply maintained its ancient tradition, while every other state has adopted a rectangular or square version in the European vexillological tradition. The present flag of Nepal was adopted under the Nepalese constitution adopted on 16 December 1962. The modern flag seems to be the combination of ancient mustang kingdom and the ongoing flag used by the former gorkha kingdom. The colour gradients have been adopted from the mustang kingdom. Prior to 1962 both symbols on the flag, the sun and moon carried human faces in them. The constitution dedicated an entire section to the precise size and shape of the flag since people were drawing it incorrectly. This section is continued even today even though multiple constitution were introduced in the country during the period.

In May 2008 during the drafting of the new constitution, various political parties demanded the change of the flag since it symbolized Hinduism and monarchy but this proposal was rejected.

National flag
Flag of Nepal
Country - Nepal

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Nepal (नेपाल ), formally the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal (सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, and India in the south, east, and west, while it is narrowly separated from Bangladesh by the Siliguri Corridor, and from Bhutan by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural state, with Nepali as the official language. Kathmandu is the nation's capital and the largest city.

The name "Nepal" is first recorded in texts from the Vedic period of the Indian subcontinent, the era in ancient Nepal when Hinduism was founded, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BC, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Lumbini in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet. The centrally located Kathmandu Valley is intertwined with the culture of Indo-Aryans, and was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala. The Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valley's traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional art and architecture. By the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal. The Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the British Empire, under its Rana dynasty of premiers. The country was never colonised but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and British India. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951 but was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs, in 1960 and 2005. The Nepalese Civil War in the 1990s and early 2000s resulted in the establishment of a secular republic in 2008, ending the world's last Hindu monarchy.
Neighbourhood - Country
  •  China 
  •  India