Sewn to measure. On time. Every time.
Sewn to measure. On time. Every time.
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Buddhist Flag

SKU: A42 Category: Portfolio:

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33,70 €
each.incl. VAT
Shipping to Italy · 00187: calculating…
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At your door Monday 9 November — Standard

Order within 22 h 8 min to keep this date

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60 days
return
24 months
warranty
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Configuration

Delivery

ExpressWed 4 Novat your door
StandardMon 9 Novat your door
EconomyFri 20 Novat your door

Specifications

Description

Buddhist Flag

The six colours of the Buddhist flag

The Buddhist flag has five vertical stripes, blue, yellow, red, white and orange, and at the end a sixth section where the same five colours repeat in small horizontal stripes. It is the international Buddhist flag, which today flies over temples, in monasteries and at Buddhist celebrations all over the world.

Colombo, 1885

The flag was born in Colombo, in what was then Ceylon, today Sri Lanka, and was first raised in 1885. It was designed by a Colombo committee whose members included the Venerable Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera and Don Carolis Hewavitharana, two leading figures of the Buddhist revival on the island. They wanted a sign that would represent the unity and shared faith of Buddhist communities.

Colonel Olcott's advice

At first the flag was long and narrow, like a ship's flag. Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, an American, co-founder of the Theosophical Society and a pioneer of Buddhism in the West, suggested giving it the shape and size of national flags. The committee soon took up the advice, and since then the flag has had the shape you see here.

The aura of the Buddha

According to tradition, the six colours are those of the aura that shone from the Buddha's body when he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. Blue is universal compassion for all beings, yellow the Middle Way, red the blessings that practice brings, white the purity of the teaching, orange wisdom. The sixth section, made of all the colours together, stands for the universality of the truth the Buddha taught.

A flag for the whole world

In the early 1950s the World Fellowship of Buddhists adopted it as the international Buddhist flag. Since then it has been the common symbol of the Buddhist faith around the world, and in Sri Lanka, the land where it was born, many variants can be seen: with a white border, swallow-tailed, or hung vertically along the roads to the temples.

Who chooses it

For a temple, a monastery or a Buddhist centre, for a Buddhist community or association, for the Vesak festival, for a meditation centre, for anyone with ties to Sri Lanka or to countries of Buddhist tradition, for a school or a museum that tells the story of the world's religions, for a flag collector. We sew it to order, in the size and fabric you choose above, and you see the delivery date before you pay.

Flag facts

Validity
Current
Years in use
from 1885 · period 1800–1899
Officiality
De facto
Use
Not applicable
Proportions
2:3
Number of colours
5 or more

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