Last modified: 2023-06-10 by zachary harden
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by Pascal Gross
Based on a source at
http://www.myanmars.net/myanmar/admin.htm. The early Mons hoisted this flag
of the golden Hinthar on a green background.
Pier Paolo Lugli, 30 March 1998
2:7,
by Andy Weir
This could be the first military flag of Myanmar. It is not a
rectangular flag. A yellow circle on red, and 3 pointed strips to the
edge. Original size was 6'x14'.
The yellow circle represents the sun, and 7 animals in 7 colors for the 7
most powerful animals of the universe. These are:
monkey (in gold)
galone (in white)
beloo (ogre) (in yellow)
peacock (in black)
lion (in green)
elephant (in red)
dragon (in light pink)
Pier Paolo Lugli, 30 March 1998
by Pascal Gross
The pre-British flags are not known with certainty. Legras (1858)
showed a peacock in natural on a white field for the 'Burmese Empire'. Other
sources showed the red ring mentioned above.
Ivan Sache, 28 January 2001
Three wars allowed the progressive colonization of Burma by the British. The
flag shown in Album des Pavillons, Laurie's
Flag Chart and travellers' notebooks was the blue peacock 'rouant vert et
miraillé or' (with a golden wheel 'fimbriated' in gold) on a white field. [My
comment: This is the same design shown here, in contradiction to the description
"White, a peacock on a red disk or inside a red ring." 'Grand Larousse du XXe
siecle' shows a white peacock, outlined in black, on a white disc, surrounded by
a red ring, the main field being white.] But: Franciae Vexilla
#20/66, December 2000 says the *arms* showed a peacock on a red disk, with four
flags with a red disk in saltire.
Ivan Sache, 28 January 2001
by Ivan Sache
The Burmese king Mindon (1853-1876) moved the capital of his kingdom to
Mandalay in June 1857. A painting from that period shows dark red, three-pointed
flags with a black cross in the middle. It is not known if these flags were
Mindon's standards, army or national flags. The cross might be associated with
Christianity since missionaries were already present in the area in the 1850's.
The British troops entered in Mandalay on 28 November 1885 and Burma was
attached to the British Empire on 1 January 1886. The new colony of Upper-Burma
was later attached to Indian Empire on 26 February 1886.
Source: H. Calvarin, Franciae Vexilla #20/66, December 2000.
Ivan Sache, 19 December 2000
The flag shown here is the standard of the royal artillery who were mainly
Christian Portuguese descendants (hence the cross) .
Zaw-Htet, 20 March 2007
Burma was incorporated to India and became a separate colony in 1937. The governor's flag was the Union Jack defaced in the middle with the Burmese seal (a green and blue peacock on a golden disk).
Based on Franciae Vexilla #20/66, December
2000, the Commission of Rangoon Harbour used a 1:2 Red Ensign with the Port's
seal (three black ships on a white disk, surrounded with a golden garland
bearing 'Commissariat port of Rangoon' and crowned) at lower fly. The flag of
the colony was similar but with a blue field and the Burmese seal. [My notes:
these flags are shown in Flaggenbuch with minor differences, e.g. Port's seal
has a light blue disk and the word is of course 'commissioners']
Ivan Sache, 28 January 2001
Steve Stringfellow, 20 August 1997
From a pre-1917 cigar box label insert.
In "A Pocket Dictionary of Flags" by John Gaunt Jr. published in 1876 [gau76], the Burmese flag has a white field with a peacock in full color.
John Niggley, 25 January 1996
Jorge Candeias, 4 October 1999
The Burmese flag shown on an old flag plate is the old peacock on a white field. I've seen this design in several sources, always with a different peacock, though they all seem to be naturalistically drawn (and coloured). FOTW shows a scan of an old cigar box with this flag. However, Pier Paolo's short history of Burmese flags does not include it, being the "White, a peacock on a red disk or inside a red ring." of until 1886 [being] the closest we can find. I think I've also seen this one, although the simply white one seems to be more frequently depicted. This doesn't mean, of course, that it was indeed in use.
To make the above GIF I simply took clipart and placed it on a white field. It is probably no more correct or incorrect than any other such representation. Which probably means that the accuracy relative to flags really used last century is pretty low. The proportions of the flag (overall, symbol to field, etc.) and the position of the peacock (facing the hoist) were taken from the image in the flagplate. [See below]
Jorge Candeias
Jorge Candeias, 4 October 1999
image by Eugene Ipavec, 22 June 2009
Image based on photo of flag obtained in Burma during WW2 by Dan Lloyd.