The Secret History Behind Kyrgyzstan's Flag
The center of Kyrgyzstan's flag is the top of a yurt seen from below.
The flag was adopted on March 3, 1992, to replace the Soviet-era flag, about seven months after independence. It is a red field with a golden sun in the middle that has forty rays.
Inside the sun there is a red ring crossed by two sets of three lines. It is a stylized tunduk, the crown of the yurt, the traditional round home of nomadic Kyrgyz families, and it stands for the family home and, more broadly, for the universe. Red is linked to the banner of Manas, the hero of the great Kyrgyz epic, and it is read as courage. The forty rays are popularly linked to the forty tribes that Manas united, although some versions say they are his forty companions.
The date printed on every Kyrgyzstan design in our catalog, August 31, 1991, is Independence Day.
A yurt's crown inside a golden sun.
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