Flag of East Timor

What the flag of East Timor looks like

The flag of East Timor has a red field with two isosceles triangles whose bases lie along the hoist, the side nearest the pole. The larger triangle is yellow and reaches about halfway across the flag. The smaller triangle is black and lies on top of the yellow one, extending about a third of the way across. In the black triangle is a white five-pointed star, with one point aimed toward the hoist. The flag has a ratio of 1:2.

The star is sometimes called the guiding light of the nation, and its tilted position is part of the design. The flag has a bold, modern appearance and is among the few national flags that use triangles from the hoist in this way. For a simple version of the design, see the East Timor flag emoji.

East Timor flag meaning and symbolism

The constitution and official explanations give each element a meaning:

• Red stands for the struggle for national liberation.
• Yellow represents the traces of colonialism in the country's past.
• Black stands for the obscurantism that needs to be overcome, meaning ignorance and darkness.
• The white star symbolizes peace and is described as the light that guides the people.

The triangles are meant to look like a wedge pushing forward, with the black piece of the flag pointing toward the future. People often say the layers move from the colonial past (yellow) through difficulty (black) to peace (the star).

History of the East Timor flag

Timor was a Portuguese colony for centuries, and the flag of Portugal was flown there until the 1970s. After the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974, Portugal moved toward leaving its colonies. On 28 November 1975, the Fretilin independence movement declared the Democratic Republic of East Timor and raised the new red, yellow and black flag.

The independence was short-lived. Indonesia invaded on 7 December 1975 and annexed the territory the following year, and the flag was banned and became a symbol of the resistance movement. After a UN-organized referendum in 1999, in which East Timorese voted to leave Indonesia, the territory was run by a United Nations administration, and the UN flag was used in official settings.

When the country became fully independent on 20 May 2002, it restored the 1975 flag as the national flag. The state is officially called Timor-Leste, which means East Timor in Portuguese and is the name used in the constitution. Both names appear in English, and the flag is the same.