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Flag of Bangkok

The god Indra on a white elephant on a green field: the flag of Bangkok carries the emblem of the city and the colour of its patron god.

Flag of Bangkok
Coat of arms
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The flag, in figures

Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.

Proportions
2:33 wide for every 2 high. 989 flags in the catalogue share it.
Properties
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
Use
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.
Colours
  • green
  • white
Reference shades: the official one may vary slightly.
Coat of arms
YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.
Origin
Emblem of Bangkok
123

Take a closer look

  1. The green field

  2. 1

    The emblem

  3. 2

    The god Indra

  4. 3

    The white elephant

How it is described

The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.

Vexillological description

It is a rectangular green field with a 2:3 ratio with the emblem of the city drawn in white lines in the centre.

Field (the cloth)
emerald green, with no stripes.
Emblem
a large white circle with a double border, centred. Inside, the god Indra seated on a white elephant coming forward head-on among clouds, with a three-pronged weapon in his hand.
Inscription
at the top of the circle, in Thai letters, ‘Krung Thep Maha Nakhon’, the official name of the city. On the sides, some short rays.

What it carries

Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.

Its history in dates

Every date in its story, at a glance.

  1. 1923

    The drawing comes from a painting by Prince Naris, a great artist of the Siamese royal family,…

  2. 1930

    Bangkok city council began using Indra as an emblem in the 1930s

  3. 1972

    The present city was born in 1972

  4. 2023

    In 2023 the city renewed its graphic identity but left the emblem almost intact

The full story

How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.

The flag of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, is green with a white drawing in the centre: the god Indra riding his elephant. It is the emblem of the city council, and the green is the colour of the god himself.

How it came about

The drawing comes from a painting by Prince Naris, a great artist of the Siamese royal family, who in 1923 depicted Indra on the elephant Erawan for King Rama VI. Bangkok city council began using Indra as an emblem in the 1930s. The present city was born in 1972, when the provinces of Phra Nakhon and Thonburi merged, and its emblem was fixed shortly afterwards, in 1973.

How it has changed

No earlier version of the flag is known. In 2023 the city renewed its graphic identity but left the emblem almost intact.

What it means

  • Indra

    a god of Hinduism who is venerated in Thailand as guardian of the sky. According to the city council, the governor directs the capital as Indra directs his celestial city.

  • White elephant

    Erawan, the mount of Indra. In Thailand white elephants are sacred animals.

  • Three-pronged weapon

    the vajra, Indra’s thunderbolt.

  • Green

    the colour with which Indra is painted in Thai art. It recalls the rain and the fertility of the rice fields.

Fun facts

  1. The longest name in the world, in short form

    The flag reads Krung Thep Maha Nakhon. It is the short form of the ceremonial name of the city, which with 168 letters is the longest place name in the world according to the Guinness Book.

  2. An emblem that cannot be touched

    When Bangkok renewed its image in 2023 the designers barely changed the emblem: it is published in the official government gazette and changing it would require changing the law.

  3. Another white elephant on the flag of Siam

    Until 1916 the national flag of Thailand, then called Siam, was red with a white elephant. Bangkok keeps a white elephant on its flag.

  4. The emblem made statue

    Since 2014 a bronze statue of Indra on Erawan, the same scene as on the flag, nearly six metres high, presides over a building of the Bangkok city council.

Location

Buy the flag

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How much have you learnt?

Test what you have read about the flag of Bangkok.

  1. 1. Which one is the flag of Bangkok?

  2. 2. Which of these elements appears on the flag?

  3. 3. What are the proportions (height:width) of the flag?

Sources

Text based on the article “Bangkok (FOTW)” from the Spanish Wikipedia, published under the licence CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources consulted:

Credits

Flag image: Own Work by Uploader, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.

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