Timor-Leste

3×5' nylon national flag of Timor-Leste (East Timor).

Timor-Leste's flag was first raised in 1975, when the country declared independence from Portugal. Nine days later Indonesia invaded, and the flag would not fly freely again until 2002.

Design

A red field with a black triangle at the hoist set over a larger yellow triangle, forming an arrowhead. A white five-pointed star sits in the black triangle, tilted.

History & Symbolism

The flag was restored at independence on 20 May 2002. Yellow stands for the traces of colonialism, black for the obscurantism that had to be overcome, red for the struggle for liberation, and the white star for peace and the light that guides the way.

Flag Specifications

• Adopted: 1975; restored 20 May 2002
• Official proportions: 1:2
• Colors: red, yellow, black, white
• Emblem: white star

Vexillographer's Note

Timor-Leste was the first new sovereign state of the twenty-first century, and its flag was among the first raised in the new millennium.

Humphrys Flag Company · Old City Philadelphia · Est. 1864