Flag of Cambodia

What the flag of Cambodia looks like

The Cambodian flag is made of a blue band at the top, a red band in the middle and a blue band at the bottom. The red band is twice as tall as each blue one, so red takes up half of the flag. In the center sits a white image of the temple complex of Angkor Wat, drawn with its three visible towers and a wide base. The temple has five towers in reality, but only three can be seen from the front, and that is how it appears on the flag. The gray shades in the measured colors come from the shading of the temple's outline.

The flag is wider than it is tall. The temple stands in the center of the red band. There is no text on it. Compared with the flag of Laos or Thailand, which also use blue and red, the Cambodian flag stands out because of the temple.

The Cambodia flag emoji, 🇰🇭, shows the same stripes and a small temple. It is often confused with 🇨🇩, which is the flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Cambodia flag meaning and symbolism

The three elements of the flag are traditionally linked to the national motto, Nation, Religion, King. Red stands for the nation and the courage of its people. White stands for religion, mainly Buddhism, which is practiced by the large majority of Cambodians. Blue is the color of the monarchy and stands for the king and the royalty of the kingdom.

Angkor Wat is the key symbol. It was built in the 12th century under King Suryavarman II as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, and it later became a Buddhist site. Because of this history, the question whether Cambodia is a Hindu or Buddhist country has a simple present-day answer: Theravada Buddhism is the dominant religion, but the Hindu heritage is visible in the temple. The temple is the pride of Khmer culture and a reminder of the Khmer Empire, and it is the country's best-known landmark.

History of the Cambodian flag

Cambodian rulers used banners with the image of Angkor Wat from at least the mid-19th century. The design of a red flag with a white temple appeared under King Norodom after the French protectorate was set up in 1863. In the 1940s, as France worked with Cambodia toward self-rule, a blue-red-blue design with the temple came into use, and the flag was officially adopted in 1948. Cambodia became fully independent in 1953 and kept it.

The flag changed with the country's politics. In 1970 the monarchy was abolished and the Khmer Republic used a blue flag with a red canton holding a white temple and three white stars. Under the Khmer Rouge, the state of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-79) flew a plain red flag with a yellow three-tower temple. After the Vietnamese-backed government took power, the People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979-89) used a red flag with a yellow five-tower temple, and the State of Cambodia, which governed until the early 1990s, kept a similar design with a blue band.

After United Nations peacekeeping (UNTAC) and elections in 1993, the monarchy returned, and the original blue-red-blue flag with the white temple was restored by the new constitution. It has been the national flag since. The royal family also has its own standard, separate from the national flag.