There is no single "Asian" flag style. The continent spans the Arab world, the Indian subcontinent, the Buddhist and Confucian east, and the Turkic and Persian centre. Work by sub-region and then learn the famous exceptions.
The Middle East — Pan-Arab colours
Red, white, black and green: Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine, the United Arab Emirates (with a vertical red bar at the hoist), Yemen (plain red-white-black), Syria (red-white-black with two green stars), Iraq (red-white-black with the green takbir inscription). Saudi Arabia is the outlier — green with the shahada in white script and a sword. Standing apart from the Pan-Arab group: Israel (a blue Star of David between two blue stripes), Lebanon (a green cedar tree on white between two red bands), Bahrain and Qatar (maroon and white with a serrated edge — five points versus nine).
Star and crescent
Turkey (a white star and crescent on red — the model for the group), Pakistan (a white star and crescent on dark green, with a white hoist stripe for minorities), the Maldives (a white crescent on a green rectangle within a red field). The Ottoman-derived symbol also appears in the flags of several Central Asian and North African countries.
South and Southeast Asia
- India — a horizontal saffron-white-green triband with the navy-blue Ashoka Chakra (a 24-spoke wheel) in the centre.
- Indonesia (red over white) and its near-twin Monaco; Poland is the reverse, white over red.
- Bangladesh — a red disc slightly offset toward the hoist on a dark green field.
- Thailand — five horizontal bands, red-white-blue-white-red, with the blue band double width.
- Vietnam (a single gold star on red) and China (one large gold star and four smaller ones, on red).
- Cambodia — the only current national flag depicting a building: a white outline of Angkor Wat on a blue band between two red bands.
- Myanmar — yellow, green and red horizontal bands with a large white star.
- Philippines — blue over red with a white triangle carrying a sun and three stars; uniquely, the flag is flown with the red band up in wartime.
- Sri Lanka — a golden lion holding a sword on a maroon field, with green and orange bands and bo leaves in the corners.
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Kazakhstan — a golden sun and eagle on sky blue with an ornamental hoist pattern. Uzbekistan — blue, white and green bands with a crescent and twelve stars. Turkmenistan — green with an elaborate carpet-pattern stripe (the most complex national flag design in the world) and a crescent with five stars. Kyrgyzstan — a red field with a yellow sun whose centre shows a stylised yurt roof-frame. Tajikistan — red-white-green with a crown and seven stars. Azerbaijan — blue-red-green bands with a white crescent and eight-pointed star. Armenia — red-blue-orange horizontal bands. Georgia — the "Five Cross Flag", a large red cross with four smaller Bolnisi crosses on white.
The one-offs to memorise
- Nepal — the only non-rectangular national flag, two stacked triangles (a double pennon) with a moon and a sun.
- Bhutan — a white dragon (Druk) clutching jewels, across a diagonal split of yellow and orange.
- South Korea — the red-and-blue taegeuk circle and four black trigrams from the I Ching, on white.
- Japan — a plain red disc (the sun) on white.
- Cambodia — Angkor Wat, the only building on a current national flag.
Filter Guess the Flag to Asia — the sheer variety makes the continent filter especially useful here.
Drill Asian flags →