Why Nepal’s flag isn’t a rectangle

Line up the flags outside the United Nations or at an Olympic ceremony and one always breaks the pattern. Nepal’s is the only national flag in the world that isn’t a rectangle or a square, and the only one taller than it is wide.

The shape isn’t a design whim. It’s two triangular pennants stacked on top of each other, a holdover from a time when triangular flags were common across South Asia. Nearly every state in the region later switched to the European rectangle. Nepal kept its own.

Where the two triangles come from

Triangular flags have roots in Hindu religious banners known as “dhvaja”. Rulers in the region flew pennants long before Nepal existed as a country.

Most accounts credit the double pennant to King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who unified Nepal’s small principalities in the 18th century. The war banner of the Shah kings of Gorkha was a single red triangle. After unification, the paired pennants became the standard. Many accounts say they stood for two rival branches of the ruling family.

Britannica gives the wider context. Hundreds of states on the subcontinent had their own flags, often in shapes that looked unusual by European standards. Most vanished under British rule, and the rest lost international standing when India became independent in 1947. Nepal, never a colony, carried on with its own.

What the colours and symbols mean

Crimson is Nepal’s national colour and stands for the bravery of its people. It also nods to the rhododendron, the national flower. The blue border stands for peace.

The upper triangle holds a white moon with rays; the lower one, a white sun with twelve rays. Interpretations vary. The oldest ties them to the hope that the country will last as long as the sun and moon. Another links the moon to the cool Himalayas and the sun to the heat of the southern lowlands, the Terai.

Until 1962, the sun and moon had human faces. The current flag, without them, was adopted with the constitution of December 16, 1962. According to Nepalese accounts, civil engineer Shankar Nath Rimal standardised the design at King Mahendra’s request.

A constitution with drawing instructions

Because people kept drawing the flag wrong, the constitution devoted a full section to its geometry, step by step: draw a line of this length, join this point to that one, find the centre of the moon like so. The rule has carried through later constitutions and sits in Schedule 1 of the current one, from 2015.

That geometry has an odd side effect. The ratio of the finished flag’s height to its width is an irrational number, about 1:1.219. The rectangle around the red field alone, without the blue border, is exactly 3:4.

In 2008, while a new constitution was being drafted, several parties called for a redesign, arguing the flag symbolised Hinduism and the monarchy. The proposal was rejected, and the flag stayed the same even after the monarchy ended.

Trouble at international events

The shape is a headache for organisers. A 2004 Olympic protocol required every flag to be a 2:3 rectangle. At the Rio Games in 2016, Nepal’s flag was often printed on a white background to make it rectangular. The Tokyo 2020 protocol manual took a different line: Nepal was the only exception to the standard size, with its flag required to match the others in height.

If you’re travelling to Nepal

• A Nepalese flag printed on a white rectangle isn’t a mistake. It’s the version used at some events to fit the standard.
• In Kathmandu and other towns, you’ll see the national flag on streets, shops and public buildings. The strings of coloured squares on trails and around temples are something else: Buddhist prayer flags.
• If you want to draw it yourself, the official recipe is in Schedule 1 of Nepal’s constitution.

FAQ

Why is Nepal’s flag shaped like that?

It joins two triangular pennants, the traditional form of flags in South Asia and of Hindu religious banners. Nepal kept the design when other countries adopted the rectangle.

Which country has the only non-rectangular flag?

Nepal. It’s the only national flag that is neither a rectangle nor a square.

What do the sun and moon on Nepal’s flag mean?

The traditional reading is a hope that the country will last as long as both. Some also link the moon to the cold Himalayas and the sun to the hot southern plains.

How old is Nepal’s flag?

The double-triangle shape is old. The current design, without faces on the sun and moon, was fixed in the constitution of December 16, 1962.

Sources

• Flag of Nepal, Encyclopaedia Britannica, by Whitney Smith: the subcontinent’s flags, colours, symbols, the removed faces and the 1962 date.
• Flag of Nepal, Wikipedia: the dhvaja and double-pennant origin, Prithvi Narayan Shah, Shankar Nath Rimal, the irrational ratio, the 2008 redesign push and the 2004, 2016 and 2020 Olympic protocols.
• Nepal’s Constitution of 2015, Constitute Project: Schedule 1, with the official method for constructing the flag.