Nepal’s flag is the only non-rectangular national flag in the world. Its distinctive design consists of two joined triangular pennants, producing a concave, double-pennon shape rather than the rectangle used by nearly every other national flag.
The modern flag combines traditional Himalayan pennants with a crimson field, a blue border, and white symbols of the moon and sun. Crimson represents bravery and is also associated with Nepal’s national flower, the rhododendron; the blue border symbolizes peace. The two pennants are often interpreted in relation to Nepal’s Hindu and Buddhist traditions and its Himalayan identity.
Nepal formally standardized the present design in 1962, and the country’s constitutional documents specify how the flag must be geometrically constructed. This makes it more than an artistic convention: its proportions and shape are legally defined. People sometimes call Nepal’s flag “triangular,” but it is more accurately a pair of stacked pennants. Square flags, such as Switzerland’s, are still technically rectangular; Nepal’s is the genuine exception.