Flag of the Week: The Flag of Mongolia

The blue stripe in the center represents the eternal blue sky. The flag’s red stripes striving for eternity. Centered on the leftmost red stripe is the Mongolian Soyombo symbol, which includes a Taijitu symbol representing the duality of yin and yang. The Soyombo symbol also includes abstractions representing fire, sun, moon, earth, and water.

The current flag, as displayed above, was adopted January 12th, 1992. However, the current official color standards were set July 8th, 2011.

Until 1992, the flag had a communist star above the Soyombo, during the final 47 years of the Mongolian People's Republic. The flag was originally designed by artist Dodiin Choidog (Додийн Чойдог). Past variations have also included, only having the cresent and the circle on a red background, the same thing with a fire on a blue background, the same crest as today but in a yellow circle with leaves under it.

Within Inner Mongolia, a landlocked autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, it has become commonplace among Mongolians to hang the flag.