Thailand Flag

Thailand's flag has five horizontal stripes: red, white, blue (double width), white, red. The proportions of the stripes are 1:1:2:1:1 from top to bottom, creating a symmetric design with the wider blue centre.

Red represents the nation; white represents the purity of Buddhism; blue represents the monarchy. The three colours together symbolise Nation, Religion, and King — the Thai national ideology.

Thailand (then Siam) used a plain red flag until the early 20th century. White elephants were added for various purposes. In 1917, during World War I, King Rama VI replaced the elephant emblem with the current five-stripe design — reportedly after seeing an elephant-emblem flag accidentally flown upside-down.

The blue stripe was made double-width to give visual weight to the centre and align the flag's symbolism with Allied nations (France, UK) who also used red, white, and blue. Thailand has never been colonised.