The flag of Nepal

1. 0163.2%

   Crimson

   The field of both pennants, and the national colour

   HEX

   #DC143C

   RGB

   220 20 60

   CMYK

   0 100 80 5

   Pantone

   186 C

   RAL

   3028

2. 0223.1%

   Deep blue

   The border on every side

   HEX

   #003893

   RGB

   0 56 147

   CMYK

   100 81 0 23

   Pantone

   287 C

   RAL

   5005

3. 0313.6%

   White

   The moon and the sun

   HEX

   #FFFFFF

   RGB

   255 255 255

No law gives these codes. HEX and RGB are the colour this site draws the flag in; CMYK, Pantone and RAL are the values most often published for it.

Two right-angled crimson pennants stacked on a common vertical hoist, the upper one shorter and more steeply cut than the lower, the whole outlined by a deep blue border of even width. A white crescent moon with eight triangular rays sits in the upper pennant and a white sun with twelve triangular rays in the lower.

Base and hoist

Draw the base AB along the bottom of a crimson cloth at any length. The hoist AC rises from A at a right angle and is AB plus one third of AB, so the red field alone fits a box of width 3 and height 4

Lower pennant

Mark D on the hoist with AD equal to AB and join BD, which gives the diagonal edge of the lower pennant

Upper pennant

Mark E on BD with BE equal to AB. Through E draw FG parallel to the base, from F on the hoist, with FG equal to AB. Join CG for the diagonal edge of the upper pennant

Moon

A vertical line HI stands a quarter of AB from the hoist. It meets the line drawn from J, the midpoint of CF, parallel to the base at L, and the line from J to G at M. Arcs struck from L, M and a point N below M form the crescent, and eight equal triangles fill the band between two further arcs struck from T above it

Sun

Its centre W is where HI meets the line drawn parallel to the base from the midpoint of AF. Two circles about W, of radius MN and LN, bound twelve equal triangles, two of whose tips touch HI

Border

Deep blue, as wide as the distance TN from the moon's construction, and carried round every side, with each outer angle equal to the inner angle it follows

Hoisting

The border as drawn is for a flag flown with a rope. On a pole, the border along the hoist may be widened as needed

Imaginary lines

The construction lines HI, RS, FE, ED, JG, OQ, JK and UV and every circle and arc except the crescent itself are not shown on the flag

Crimson

Victory in war or courage in the official description, and the colour of the rhododendron, the national flower

Blue border

Peace, the wish of the Nepali people for it

Moon and sun

The hope that Nepal will last as long as the sun and the moon. The moon is also read as the calm of the people and the cool of the Himalaya, the sun as the fierce resolve of Nepali warriors and the heat of the Terai

The two pennants

Descended from the triangular Hindu banners called dhvaja and from the separate pennants of two rival branches of the ruling dynasty. A 1963 government booklet read the two triangles as the Himalaya and as Hinduism and Buddhism

16 December 1962

Constitution of Nepal, 1962

Promulgated by King Mahendra with the panchayat system. The present flag was adopted under it, and it devoted a whole section to the size and shape of the flag because people were drawing it incorrectly.

9 November 1990

Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990, Article 5 and Schedule 1

Described the flag as handed down by tradition and set out the method of drawing it in Schedule 1. Article 7 made crimson the national colour.

20 September 2015

Constitution of Nepal, 2015, Article 8 and Schedule 1

Article 8(1) defines the flag as two juxtaposed triangular figures with a crimson base and deep blue borders, a white crescent moon with eight rays visible out of sixteen in the upper part and a white twelve-rayed sun in the lower part. Schedule 1 repeats the construction of 1990. During the drafting, from May 2008, several parties asked for a new design on the ground that the flag stood for Hinduism and the monarchy, and the proposal was rejected.