Thailand Flags – Thai Flag, Bunting & Hand Flags

The Thai flag: nation, religion, king

The flag of Thailand, the Thong Trairong or tricolour flag, has five horizontal stripes of red, white, blue, white and red, with the central blue stripe twice the height of the others. It was introduced by King Vajiravudh, Rama VI, on 28 September 1917, replacing the red flag with a white elephant that had flown over Siam for most of the previous century; the story usually told is that the king, having seen the elephant flag hung upside down, wanted a design that could not be flown the wrong way. The three colours are read as the three pillars of the Thai state: red for the nation and the blood of its people, white for religion, and blue for the monarchy, blue also being the colour associated with Rama VI’s day of birth. The proportion is 2:3 and the stripes run 1:1:2:1:1. Our Thailand flag is printed with the deep blue of the official standard and a clean white, so it does not drift towards the lighter blue of the Costa Rican flag, which uses the same layout with red and blue swapped.

Songkran, Loy Krathong and Thai Flag Day

Songkran, the Thai New Year on 13 to 15 April, is the biggest date for Thai flags in Britain: temples such as Wat Buddhapadipa in Wimbledon, Thai festivals in London, Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh, and every Thai restaurant run water fights, food stalls and parades with the tricolour everywhere. Loy Krathong in November, Thai Flag Day on 28 September, which has been a national observance since 2017, and the King’s Birthday on 28 July follow. The Thai community in the UK is large and spread wide, and the flag hangs in Thai restaurants, supermarkets, massage and spa rooms and muay thai gyms from Aberdeen to Plymouth. In sport the War Elephants, the national football team, draw big screens in the restaurants during the ASEAN Championship and World Cup qualifiers, while Thai boxers, badminton players and golfers carry the flag on tour.

Thailand flag sizes and grades

5ft x 3ft is the usual choice for a pole, a restaurant front or a festival stall; 3ft x 2ft for a counter wall, a gym or a short pole; 8ft x 5ft for a stage, a temple flagpole or a large fixed pole; 20x12in for a car or a hand pole. Flagtex is the printed woven polyester for celebrations and short spells outside; DuraFlag is the heavier knitted polyester with double-stitched hems for a pole in daily use. A sewn header with brass eyelets is standard, with clips or rope and toggle offered on the DuraFlag.

Thailand bunting

Thailand bunting is stocked in rectangle and triangle cuts and in 3m, 5m, 9m and 20m lengths, sewn to a tape in weatherproof polyester, so a 20m run can dress a whole Songkran street while a 3m length trims a restaurant window. For a mixed display, plain red, white and blue lengths from the bunting range match the flag colours.

Hand flags and table flags

Thailand hand flags on wooden sticks come in 9x6in and 18x12in for festival parades, football and school events. The Thailand table flag is a 6x4in flag on a base for a restaurant table, a spa reception or an office, and the large wooden table flag at 18x12in suits a counter or a shrine shelf. Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and the rest of South-East Asia are under world flags.

Thai flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Thailand Flag (20x12in to 8x5ft, 2 grades)from £6.99
• Thailand Bunting (3m to 20m, rectangle or triangle)from £9.98
• Thailand Hand Flagsfrom £5.99
• Thailand Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• Thailand Large Wooden Table Flagfrom £3.98