Bolivia flag picture
| Name | La Tricolor (the national flag) |
|---|---|
| Adopted | October 31 and November 5, 1851 (Belzu's decree and law) July 19, 2004 (proportions and colors fixed) |
| First flag | August 17, 1825 — now Flag Day |
| Proportion | 22 : 15 (fly : hoist) — 7.5 by 11 squares |
| Beside it | The Wiphala — a state symbol since the Constitution of 2009 |
The Bolivian flag is a horizontal tricolor of red, yellow, and green — the blood of the heroes, the wealth of the mines, and the land and its hope — ordered by Belzu in 1851, fixed to the Pantone in 2004, and flown with the Wiphala at its side since 2009.
An overview
The national flag of Bolivia — La Tricolor — is a horizontal tricolor of red, yellow, and green in three equal bands, red uppermost, at a proportion of 15:22. The civil flag is plain; the state flag, for the acts of the state, carries the coat of arms on the yellow band. Since 2009 it flies beside a second symbol of the state, the Wiphala of the Andean peoples.
The republic’s first flag rose on August 17, 1825, eleven days after independence — green, red, and green with five stars — and a yellow-red-green tricolor replaced it in 1826. President Manuel Isidoro Belzu reordered the stripes in 1851, red to the top, and there they have stayed. The decree of 1888 wrote down what the colors mean; the decree of 2004 fixed what the flag had never had — a proportion and a Pantone; the Constitution of 2009 set the Wiphala at its side.
Bolivia keeps a Flag Day, August 17, for the flag of 1825 — and the flag it honors has, with Hungary’s and Ghana’s, one of the most imitated palettes in the world.
The coat of arms
The civil flag is plain; the state flag carries the coat of arms on its yellow band, and the arms are a portrait of the country. In the oval, Cerro Rico — the silver mountain of Potosí that financed an empire — rises under a golden sun, with the chapel of the Sacred Heart on its slope; before it stand an alpaca, a sheaf of wheat and a breadfruit tree; the oval is ringed by ten stars for the nine departments and the Litoral lost to Chile in the War of the Pacific. Around it are grouped six tricolor flags, two cannons, four rifles, an axe and the red Phrygian cap of liberty, and above sits the Andean condor with wings spread, on a wreath of laurel and olive.
The decree of 2004 drew the arms in detail for the first time and reserved them to the state flag — the flag of the presidency, the Assembly and the armed forces — while the people’s flag flies without them. Since the Constitution of 2009 the state flag and the Wiphala, the square rainbow chequer of the Andean peoples, are raised together in every official act, the tricolor on the right, the Wiphala on the left.
Official color specification
Supreme Decree No. 27630 of July 19, 2004, named the shades for the first time: Pantone 485 for the red, Process Yellow for the yellow, Pantone 356 for the green, each with its RGB and CMYK. Before 2004 the colors were words in a decree of 1888, and flagmakers chose their own.
| Color | Hex | Pantone | RGB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red | #DA291C | 485 | 218, 41, 28 |
| Yellow | #F4E400 | Process Yellow | 244, 228, 0 |
| Green | #007A33 | 356 | 0, 122, 51 |
Symbolism and meaning
The Supreme Decree of July 14, 1888, under President Gregorio Pacheco, gave the colors their official meanings — and the decree of 2004 repeated them.
The older popular reading — red for the valor of the army, yellow for the mines, green for the fertile land — differs only in emphasis; the three colors were also the traditional dress of the Aymara and Quechua peoples before the Spanish came.
Design and official specification
The 2004 decree defines the flag as 7.5 squares high by 11 long — 15:22 — in three equal bands, and draws two flags from it: the civil flag, plain, and the state flag with the coat of arms on the yellow band. The navy of a landlocked country has its own ensign for the rivers and Lake Titicaca, its large star the claim to the sea lost in 1884.
| Element | Specification | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Hoist (height) | 7.5 units | 150 cm (59.1 in) on the reference flag |
| Fly (length) | 11 units | 220 cm (86.6 in) |
| Ratio | 15 : 22 | Supreme Decree No. 27630, 2004 — undefined from 1851 until then |
| Bands | Three equal horizontal — red above, yellow, green below | Each 50 cm (19.7 in) on the reference flag |
| Civil flag | The plain tricolor, for civic, public and patriotic occasions | Decree of 2004, Article 1 |
| State flag | The tricolor with the coat of arms centered on the yellow band — for the acts of the state | Also the war flag |
| Colors | Pantone 485 red, Process Yellow, 356 green | CMYK 0-95-100-0 · 0-0-100-0 · 91-0-100-26 |
| Naval ensign | A blue field with the state flag and the Wiphala in the canton, ringed by nine gold stars, a larger star in the fly — for the navy of a landlocked country, on its rivers and lakes | 5:7; the nine stars the departments, the large star the lost coast |
How the flag evolved
A flag of five stars, a tricolor turned upside down by a general, and a proportion that waited 153 years — the flag’s two centuries in four moves.
1825
The first flag
Eleven days after independence was declared at Sucre, the new republic adopted its first flag on August 17, 1825: three horizontal stripes of green, red and green, the red twice the width of the others and bearing five gold stars in olive wreaths, one for each department of the new Bolívar. The date is now Flag Day.
1826
Yellow, red, and green
On July 25, 1826, under President Sucre, the flag became a tricolor of yellow over red over green, with the coat of arms in the center — the three colors the Aymara and Quechua peoples had long worn, and perhaps an echo of Bolívar's yellow, blue and red. It flew through the Peru-Bolivian Confederation and a generation of caudillos.
1851
Belzu's order
President Manuel Isidoro Belzu reordered the stripes by decree on October 31, 1851 — red above, yellow, green below — and the National Convention gave the order the force of law on November 5. The red moved to the top, tradition says, because the flag read more clearly at a distance so; the decree of July 14, 1888, under Gregorio Pacheco, first wrote down what the colors meant.
2004
To the Pantone, and the Wiphala
For 153 years the proportions were unfixed. Supreme Decree No. 27630 of July 19, 2004, under Carlos Mesa, set them at 7.5 by 11 — 15:22 — named the Pantone shades, and separated the civil flag from the state flag with its arms. The Constitution of 2009 made the Wiphala a symbol of the state beside the tricolor, and Supreme Decree No. 241 of August 5, 2009, placed it on the left of every official flagpole.
Who designed the Bolivian flag?
The flag is credited to a president rather than an artist: Manuel Isidoro Belzu, the populist general who governed from 1848 to 1855, ordered the stripes into their present sequence by decree on October 31, 1851, and the National Convention made it law five days later. The colors he arranged were already the country’s — chosen in 1825 and 1826 by the founding congresses under Sucre — so Belzu’s contribution was an order, not a palette.
The men who defined the flag came later: Gregorio Pacheco, whose decree of 1888 gave the colors meaning, and Carlos Mesa, whose decree of 2004 gave them a Pantone and a shape.
Flag Day: August 17
Bolivia keeps a flag day — the Día de la Bandera, August 17, the anniversary of the first flag of 1825, established by decree in 1924. Schools hold flag ceremonies and the anthem is sung in every plaza; in La Paz the Bandera Gigante, a tricolor hundreds of meters long, is carried through the streets. It falls eleven days after Independence Day, August 6, when the flag leads the civic and military parades of the whole country.
Legal status and display rules
The flag rests on Belzu’s law of 1851, the decrees of 1888, 2004 and 2009, and Article 6 of the Constitution of 2009, which names the tricolor first among the symbols of the state — with the anthem, the arms, the Wiphala, the cockade and the kantuta and patujú flowers. The rules of display are tabled here.
| Provision | The rule |
|---|---|
| The instruments | Belzu's law of November 5, 1851, and the decree of October 31; the Supreme Decree of July 14, 1888; Supreme Decree No. 27630 of July 19, 2004; Supreme Decree No. 241 of August 5, 2009; Article 6 of the Constitution of 2009 |
| Two flags | The civil flag, without the arms, for civic, public and patriotic celebrations; the state flag, with the arms, for the official acts of the state |
| Where it flies | On the Palacio Quemado and the Casa Grande del Pueblo, the Legislative Assembly, the ministries, the departmental governments, the schools and the barracks; on all public and private buildings on the national holidays |
| With the Wiphala | Since 2009 the tricolor is raised on the right and the Wiphala on the left in every official act — the two flags of one state |
| Precedence | The tricolor takes the place of honor; the flags of the departments and of other states fly beside it, never above |
| Respect | Not used as drapery or clothing; not allowed to touch the ground; its desecration an offense under the Penal Code |
| Flag Day | August 17, the Día de la Bandera — the anniversary of the first flag of 1825 — when the flag is honored in every school and plaza and the great flag is unfurled in La Paz |
Half-mast and mourning
Mourning is declared by supreme decree, and the flag follows.
| Provision | The rule |
|---|---|
| When | In national mourning declared by supreme decree — three days on the death of a president or former president, and for national tragedies |
| How | The flag is flown at half-mast on public buildings, with a black ribbon on the flags carried in ceremony |
Things you may not know
The flag had no shape for 153 years. From Belzu’s decree of 1851 to the decree of 2004, no Bolivian law said how long the flag should be; the 15:22 of today is younger than most of the people who fly it.
A landlocked navy, and a flag for the sea it lost. Bolivia’s naval ensign carries a large gold star for the coast taken by Chile in 1884, beside nine small ones for the departments — flown on Lake Titicaca and the rivers of the Amazon.
Two flags on every official pole. Since 2009 the tricolor flies on the right and the Wiphala on the left — Bolivia is the only country whose constitution names two flags as symbols of the state.
Frequently asked questions
What does the flag of Bolivia look like?
Three equal horizontal bands — red above, yellow in the middle, green below — in a proportion of 15:22. The civil flag is plain; the state flag, flown by the presidency and the armed forces, carries the coat of arms on the yellow band. The order of the stripes dates from 1851 and the exact proportions and colors from 2004.
What do the colors of the Bolivian flag mean?
The decree of 1888 fixed them: red for the blood shed by the heroes for the birth and preservation of the Republic; yellow for the country's wealth and resources — its mines above all; green for the richness of the land and for hope, a founding value of the nation. Older readings give the red to the valor of the army and note that the three colors were the dress of the Aymara and Quechua peoples.
When was the Bolivian flag adopted?
The first flag was adopted on August 17, 1825, eleven days after independence — green-red-green with five stars. A yellow-red-green tricolor followed on July 25, 1826. President Belzu ordered the present red-yellow-green by decree on October 31, 1851, given the force of law on November 5; Supreme Decree No. 27630 of July 19, 2004, fixed the proportions and colors.
Why does Bolivia have two flags?
In two senses. The decree of 2004 distinguishes the civil flag — the plain tricolor for the people's use — from the state flag with the coat of arms, for the acts of the state. And since the Constitution of 2009 the Wiphala, the square rainbow chequer of the Aymara and the Andean peoples, is a symbol of the state alongside the tricolor: in every official act the tricolor flies on the right and the Wiphala on the left.
What is the Wiphala?
A square flag of 49 small squares in seven colors set diagonally — the emblem of the Qullasuyu, the southern quarter of the Inca world, and of the Aymara people. Article 6 of the Constitution of 2009 made it one of the symbols of the Plurinational State, and Supreme Decree No. 241 of that year placed it beside the tricolor on every official flagpole.
What are the official colors of the Bolivian flag?
Supreme Decree No. 27630 of 2004 fixes them: Pantone 485 for the red (#DA291C), Pantone Process Yellow for the yellow (#F4E400) and Pantone 356 for the green (#007A33), with RGB and CMYK values alongside.
Why is the Bolivian flag's proportion 15:22?
Because the decree of 2004 defined the flag as 7.5 squares high by 11 squares long — a proportion the flag had never had in law before, having flown at whatever shape flagmakers chose since 1851. Doubled, 7.5 by 11 is 15:22, one of the more unusual ratios among national flags.
What is on Bolivia's coat of arms?
Cerro Rico, the silver mountain of Potosí, under a golden sun, with an alpaca, a sheaf of wheat and a breadfruit tree before it; ten stars around the oval for the nine departments and the coast lost to Chile in 1884; six flags, cannons, rifles, an axe and the Phrygian cap of liberty around it; and the Andean condor above. The state flag carries it on the yellow band.
When is Bolivia's Flag Day?
August 17 — the Día de la Bandera, the anniversary of the first flag of 1825, kept since 1924. The flag is honored in every school and plaza, and in La Paz the great tricolor is paraded. Bolivia also honors the flag at the Independence Day parades of August 6.
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