Flag of Tibet

The Tibetan flag is used by the Tibetan government in exile. It originated in Tibet itself

History

The elements of the flag to be created under King Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century. The snow lion appears for the first time on a war banner. In 1912 added under the 13th Dalai Lama ( 1876-1933 ) to the traditional symbols of Tibetan regiments the sun and the blue and red stripes. However, the flag served as a military flag, not as the national flag. In the archives of the French Foreign Ministry there is a document that describes a national flag of Tibet with the snow lions, said to have been introduced around 1920. The report comes from the French consul and is documented with a photo. Before 1920, you may still put the old imperial Chinese flag. After 1925 then today's flag should have been used.

1947 persuaded the British Tibet to send a delegation to the Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi. Hugh Richardson, the British commercial attaché in New Delhi of the delegation recommended to use a flag to document the claim to independence. The absence of a national flag is resorted to the military flag.

In the 1950s, the 14th Dalai Lama himself called this flag, the " Army flag ", not " national flag " of Tibet; also the Tibetan " Prime Minister " Lukangwa ( klu khang ba) represented at the same time this position. There was a political conflict about this flag, but by the uprising in 1959, she was quite worn open. Only later exiled Tibetans began to be used as the national flag, the flag of Tibet.

The flag is banned in the People's Republic of China and Tibet threaten strictest penalties to own or even to publicly display this flag.

Symbolism

The website of the Tibetan government in exile describes the importance of the individual elements of the flag as follows: