Sri Lanka Flags – Lion Flag, Bunting & Hand Flags

The Lion Flag: sword, bo leaves and two stripes

The Sri Lanka flag is a gold lion holding a kastane sword on a maroon panel, with a gold bo leaf in each corner, and two vertical stripes of green and orange at the hoist, the whole thing edged in gold. The lion and sword come from the flag of the Kandyan kingdom that the British took down in 1815, and it was raised again at independence on 4 February 1948. The green and orange stripes were added in 1951 for the island’s Muslim and Tamil communities, with the maroon standing for the Sinhalese majority, and the four bo leaves, for the Buddhist virtues of kindness, compassion, equanimity and happiness, replaced the earlier spearheads in 1972. It is one of the most detailed national flags there is, and our Sri Lanka flag prints the lion’s mane, the sword and the leaves sharply enough to stand up to a close look at a dinner or on a wall.

4 February, the cricket and the New Year

Independence Day on 4 February is the big flag day, marked by the Sri Lankan High Commission, Buddhist viharas, Hindu temples and community associations in Harrow, Wembley, East Ham, Croydon, Leicester and Glasgow with ceremonies, dancing and a lot of hoppers and kottu. Cricket is the other reason Sri Lanka flags sell in the UK: every Test, one-day and T20 tour of England brings the Lion Flag to the Oval, Lord’s, Edgbaston and Old Trafford, and the hand flags and the 5ft x 3ft go out in the weeks before the first match. Sinhala and Tamil New Year on 13 and 14 April, Vesak in May and the Esala processions in summer all bring the flag out again, as do Sri Lankan restaurants, grocers and the island’s tea and tourism promotions. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the rest of South Asia are in world flags.

Sizes, grades and fittings

The Lion Flag is stocked in 20x12in for a car or a hand pole, 3ft x 2ft for a temple hall, a restaurant or a short pole, 5ft x 3ft for a garden pole, a cricket ground or a community centre, and 8ft x 5ft for a vihara flagpole, a stage or a frontage. Flagtex is the woven-polyester print with brass eyelets for a tour or a festival; DuraFlag is the heavier knitted grade with double-stitched hems and a reinforced header for a flag kept flying all year, with clips or a rope and toggle for the halyard.

Sri Lanka bunting

Sri Lanka bunting repeats the Lion Flag on each rectangular pennant, sewn to a tape in 3m and 9m lengths. Three metres dresses a restaurant counter or a temple doorway, nine metres runs across a hall for Independence Day, a New Year celebration or a cricket screening, and lengths join end to end for a street.

Hand flags and table flags

Sri Lanka hand flags on wooden sticks in 9x6in and 18x12in are the ones for the cricket, a parade or a welcome. The Sri Lanka table flag with base is the 6x4in desk flag for a High Commission reception, a tea merchant or a restaurant counter, the wooden table flag and large wooden table flag suit a dinner or a stand, and the satin table flag is the sleeved one for a chrome base.

Sri Lankan flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Sri Lanka Flag (20x12in to 8x5ft, Flagtex or DuraFlag)from £6.99
• Sri Lanka Bunting (3m or 9m)from £9.98
• Sri Lanka Hand Flagsfrom £5.99
• Sri Lanka Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• Sri Lanka Wooden Table Flagfrom £2.99
• Large Wooden Table Flagfrom £3.98
• Sri Lanka Satin Table Flagfrom £5.00