Flags With a Dragon

Bhutan: the thunder dragon

The flag of Bhutan is split diagonally into a yellow upper half and an orange lower half, with a white dragon across the line. The dragon, called Druk, is a thunder dragon, and the country's own name for itself, Druk Yul, means "Land of the Thunder Dragon". It grips jewels in its claws, which stand for wealth and security.

The yellow stands for the secular authority of the king, and the orange-saffron stands for the Buddhist tradition. The white color of the dragon stands for purity, and its snarling mouth for the power of protective deities.

Wales: Y Ddraig Goch

The Welsh flag shows a red dragon (Y Ddraig Goch) on a white and green field. The dragon is one of the oldest national symbols in Europe and has been linked to Wales since at least the early Middle Ages. Henry Tudor carried a dragon banner at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The green and white background is taken from the Tudor livery, and the flag was made official in 1959.

Wales is a country within the United Kingdom, and its dragon is not part of the Union Jack, which is why Wales is sometimes described as the only part of the UK missing from it.

Dragons on other flags

Dragons are rare on national flags today, but they used to be common. The Qing dynasty in China flew a yellow flag with a blue dragon in the late 19th century, and Chinese imperial banners often had dragon designs. Today only these two flags in our collection show one.

The two dragons are very different. Bhutan's is white and drawn from the Buddhist tradition, while the Welsh dragon is red and rooted in Celtic legend. Both are rendered in profile and fill the flag, so they are easy to spot among similar designs.

The "dragon flag" is also the name of a core exercise in which you lift your body from a bench using only your abdominal muscles. It has no connection with the flag symbol.