1889–1912
Qing Dynasty
The 'Yellow Dragon Flag' shows the Azure Dragon chasing a flaming pearl. It began as a triangular naval ensign in 1862 and became China's first true national flag in 1889.
Today part of: China
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Historical flags
Historical flags of Asia & Oceania
132 kingdoms, empires, republics and short-lived states from Asia & Oceania that no longer exist, with the flags they flew and the story behind each one.
1912–1928
Republic of China (1912)
The five stripes stood for the Han, Manchu, Mongol, Hui, and Tibetan peoples under the 'Five Races Under One Union' ideal, until the KMT's Blue Sky flag replaced it in 1928.
Today part of: China
1932–1945
Manchukuo
The Japanese puppet state's yellow flag with a four-color canton. Its head of state was Puyi — the same man who had been the last Qing emperor as a child.
Today part of: China
1603–1868
Tokugawa Shogunate
A white field bisected by a thick black stripe served as the standard of the Tokugawa bakufu, flown during the Sakoku period when Japan was largely closed to the world.
Today part of: Japan
1870–1945
Empire of Japan
The 16-rayed Rising Sun was adopted as the Imperial Japanese Army's war flag in 1870; the rays-only design is still used today by the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Today part of: Japan
1845–1893
Kingdom of Hawaii
Identical to the modern US state flag: a Union Jack canton (a nod to British friendship under Kamehameha I) over eight stripes for the eight main islands.
Today part of: United States
1869
Republic of Ezo
Founded by rebel Tokugawa naval officer Enomoto Takeaki on Hokkaido, it is often called the first republic in Asia to hold an election. It lasted barely five months.
Today part of: Japan
1945
Empire of Vietnam
A yellow flag with a red 'li' trigram from the I Ching, symbolizing the south. It flew over the short-lived Japanese-sponsored Empire of Vietnam in 1945.
Today part of: Vietnam
1948–1975
South Vietnam
The 'Heritage Flag' — three red stripes on yellow for the three regions of Vietnam. It is still flown by Vietnamese diaspora communities worldwide.
Today part of: Vietnam
1970–1975
Khmer Republic
Lon Nol's republic replaced the royal flag; its three white stars stand for the nation, religion, and republic. Angkor Wat has appeared on every Cambodian flag since the 1800s.
Today part of: Cambodia
1870–1946
Kingdom of Sarawak
Sarawak was privately ruled by the Brooke family, English 'White Rajahs', for over a century. The split black-and-red cross is from the Brooke coat of arms.
Today part of: Malaysia
1457–1915
Sultanate of Sulu
The Sulu Sultanate controlled the seas between the southern Philippines and Borneo; its 1878 lease of North Borneo is the root of the still-active Sabah dispute.
Today part of: Philippines
1400–1511
Sultanate of Malacca
The 15th-century sultanate was a great Malay trading power; no authenticated period banner survives, so its red-and-white colors live on in the modern Malacca state flag.
Today part of: Malaysia
1916–1951
Tibet
The 'Snow Lion Flag' shows two snow lions holding a jewel before a sun over a snow mountain. Designed under the 13th Dalai Lama, it is banned in China today.
Today part of: China
1855–1916
Siam
King Mongkut (Rama IV) placed a white royal elephant — a sacred symbol of royal power — on a plain red field after foreign traders couldn't distinguish Siam's earlier banner.
Today part of: Thailand
1991–2023
Republic of Artsakh
The Armenian red-blue-orange tricolor interrupted by a white stepped chevron, flown by the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh republic until its dissolution in 2023.
Today part of: Armenia
1897–1910
Korean Empire
The Taegukgi — white field with a blue-red taegeuk and four black trigrams — was adopted in 1883 and flew over the Joseon kingdom and the Korean Empire until Japan annexed Korea in 1910.
Today part of: South Korea
1799–1849
Sikh Empire
The triangular saffron Nishan Sahib of Ranjit Singh's Punjab empire, which united the Sikh misls and held the Khyber Pass against Afghan invasion.
Today part of: India
1469–1815
Kingdom of Kandy
A maroon field bordered in gold with a golden lion holding a kastane sword. The royal standard of Sri Lanka's last independent kingdom became the basis of the modern flag.
Today part of: Sri Lanka
1293–1527
Majapahit Empire
Alternating red-and-white stripes flown by the great Javanese maritime empire — the ancestral colors that became modern Indonesia's flag.
Today part of: Indonesia
1215–1619
Jaffna Kingdom
The saffron flag of the Aryacakravarti kings of northern Sri Lanka, bearing the sacred bull Nandi, a crescent and sun, conch, and parasol.
Today part of: Sri Lanka
1895
Republic of Formosa
The 'Blue Ground Yellow Tiger Flag' of a republic that lasted from May to October 1895, declared on Taiwan to resist the Japanese takeover after the First Sino-Japanese War.
Today part of: Taiwan
1429–1879
Kingdom of Ryukyu
A white field with the Shō dynasty's three-comma mitsudomoe swirl. The independent Okinawan trading kingdom was annexed by Japan in 1879.
Today part of: Japan
1496–1903
Sultanate of Aceh
The Alam Peudeueng or 'Sword Standard' — a dark-red field with a white crescent, star, and sword, the crescent reflecting the sultanate's Ottoman alliance against the Portuguese.
Today part of: Indonesia
1587–1755
Mataram Sultanate
The greatest Islamic kingdom of central Java, which fought the Dutch East India Company for decades before being split into the Yogyakarta and Surakarta courts.
Today part of: Indonesia
1602–1799
Dutch East India Company
The red-white-blue tricolor with the 'VOC' monogram — the flag of the world's first multinational corporation, which ruled much of the Indies before the Dutch state took over.
Today part of: Indonesia
1943–1945
State of Burma (1943)
A yellow-green-red triband with a central peacock disk, flag of Ba Maw's Japanese-sponsored wartime state.
Today part of: Myanmar
1921–1926
Sultanate of Nejd
A green field with a white crescent, flown by the Al Saud state in central Arabia just before it conquered the Hejaz and became the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Today part of: Saudi Arabia
1837–1842
Kingdom of Bora Bora
Red-and-white stripes with a canton of white stars, flown by the 19th-century Polynesian island kingdom before French annexation.
Today part of: France
1300–1946
Sultanate of Gowa
The dominant Makassarese power of South Sulawesi flew a deep-red field with a white canton and a kris dagger, until it fell to the Dutch after the Makassar War.
Today part of: Indonesia
1257–1914
Sultanate of Ternate
A yellow flag with a black ring reading 'the realm of Ternate'. This Moluccan clove kingdom was one of the original Spice Islands powers fought over by Europe.
Today part of: Indonesia
1081–1967
Sultanate of Tidore
Ternate's great spice-trade rival in Maluku, whose flag carried Arabic inscriptions. At its height Tidore claimed influence as far as western New Guinea.
Today part of: Indonesia
1527–1813
Sultanate of Banten
A white field with two crossed golden swords, flown by the wealthy pepper-trading Islamic sultanate of western Java until the Dutch abolished it.
Today part of: Indonesia
1724–1948
Hyderabad State
The yellow 'Asafia' flag of the fabulously wealthy Nizams, the largest princely state of British India, annexed by India in 1948.
Today part of: India
1846–1947
Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir
A red field with a mountain range and a hand (panja) symbol, flown by the Dogra maharajas whose 1947 accession sparked the still-unresolved Kashmir dispute.
Today part of: India
1729–1949
Princely State of Travancore
A red field with a white conch shell, the sankha of Vishnu and the dynastic emblem of the south Indian kingdom famed for its temples and backwaters.
Today part of: India
1674–1818
Maratha Empire
The saffron swallow-tailed 'Bhagwa Dhwaj' of Shivaji's empire, which at its peak ruled most of the Indian subcontinent before the British.
Today part of: India
1858–1888
Kingdom of Rarotonga
Red-white-red with three blue stars, flown by the Cook Islands kingdom before it became a British protectorate, then part of New Zealand.
Today part of: New Zealand
1880–1888
Kingdom of Raiatea
A red-and-white striped flag with a small French tricolor canton, from the Leeward Islands kingdom that resisted French annexation for years.
Today part of: France
1819–1881
Kingdom of Tubuai
A white field with a red cross and four blue stars, the historic flag of a kingdom in the Austral Islands of the South Pacific.
Today part of: France
1867–1887
Kingdom of Rapa Iti
A remote Polynesian island kingdom whose flag carried a blue star beneath a crown with a French canton, before France absorbed it.
Today part of: France
1832–1844
Kingdom of Mangareva
The Gambier Islands kingdom flew a banded flag with corner stars, attributed to the French explorer Dumont d'Urville, before becoming a French protectorate.
Today part of: France
1975
Republic of the North Solomons
Bougainville's secessionists raised this blue flag with an 'upe' headdress and kapkap disc in 1975, days before Papua New Guinea's independence — the start of a long struggle.
Today part of: Papua New Guinea
1871–1874
Kingdom of Fiji
King Cakobau's united Kingdom of Fiji flew a blue-and-white flag with a crowned shield, until he ceded the islands to Britain in 1874.
Today part of: Fiji
1973
Ainu
The flag of the indigenous Ainu of Hokkaido, designed in 1973: a blue field for sky and sea, a white wave for snow, and a red arrow for the aconite hunting poison.
Today part of: Japan
1520–1888
Sultanate of Maguindanao
A powerful Muslim sultanate of Mindanao that resisted Spanish conquest for centuries, flying a plain yellow banner — the royal color.
Today part of: Philippines
1851–1864
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
The vast quasi-Christian rebel kingdom whose civil war against the Qing killed an estimated 20 million people. It flew many ornate banners rather than one fixed flag.
Today part of: China
1777–1884
Lanfang Republic
A Hakka Chinese mining state on Borneo, sometimes called one of Asia's first republics, with elected leaders — until the Dutch absorbed it.
Today part of: Indonesia
1888–1890
Kingdom of Sedang
A blue flag with a white cross and red star, decreed by the French adventurer Charles-Marie David de Mayréna, who crowned himself King Marie I in the Vietnamese highlands.
Today part of: Vietnam
1897
Republic of Biak-na-Bato
Emilio Aguinaldo's short-lived 1897 republic in a mountain stronghold, flying a blue-over-red flag with a white triangle and sun — a step toward Philippine independence.
Today part of: Philippines
1896–1897
Katipunan
The red banner with three white K's of the secret revolutionary society that launched the 1896 Philippine Revolution against Spain.
Today part of: Philippines
1943–1945
Azad Hind (Free India)
Subhas Chandra Bose's Japanese-allied Provisional Government of Free India flew a saffron-white-green tricolor with a springing tiger.
Today part of: India
1968–1989
Patani (PULO)
The banner of the movement seeking independence for the historically Malay-Muslim Patani region of southern Thailand: red-white stripes with a crescent and star.
Today part of: Thailand
1713–1947
Kingdom of Champasak
A blue flag with a white multi-tiered parasol, flown by one of the three Lao kingdoms before they were merged into modern Laos.
Today part of: Laos
1707–1893
Kingdom of Luang Prabang
The royal Lao kingdom flew a red flag with the three-headed white elephant Erawan beneath a parasol — the same elephant later used by the Kingdom of Laos.
Today part of: Laos
1206–1526
Delhi Sultanate
The series of Muslim dynasties that ruled much of medieval India from Delhi, repelling the Mongols, before the Mughals supplanted them.
Today part of: India
918–1392
Goryeo Dynasty
The medieval Korean dynasty that gave the country its English name. This reconstructed royal phoenix banner stands in for an era that used no national flag.
Today part of: South Korea
1723–1945
Sultanate of Siak Sri Indrapura
A Malay sultanate on Sumatra's east coast that grew rich on trade, flying black and yellow bands with a red hoist crest, until it joined the new Indonesian republic in 1945.
Today part of: Indonesia
1771–1950
Sultanate of Pontianak
A Borneo sultanate founded at the mouth of the Kapuas River by an Arab sayyid, flying a yellow flag with a green crescent and star.
Today part of: Indonesia
1731–1959
Sultanate of Bulungan
A North Kalimantan coastal sultanate with a simple yellow-over-blue flag, dissolved after a violent 1950s clash with the Indonesian republic.
Today part of: Indonesia
1660–1908
Kingdom of Karangasem
A Balinese kingdom in the island's east that once ruled neighbouring Lombok, before falling to the Dutch in the early 1900s.
Today part of: Indonesia
1332–1960
Sultanate of Buton
A long-lived island sultanate off southeast Sulawesi, strategically placed on the spice routes, with a distinctive constitution limiting the sultan's power.
Today part of: Indonesia
1721–1949
Princely State of Baroda
One of the wealthiest princely states of British India, ruled by the Maratha Gaekwad dynasty and famed for a pearl carpet and the gem-studded Star of the South diamond.
Today part of: India
1731–1948
Princely State of Gwalior
The Scindia dynasty's powerful Maratha state in central India, whose flag bears a sun flanked by cobras; its great hilltop fort guarded the route to the Deccan.
Today part of: India
1731–1948
Princely State of Indore
The Holkar dynasty's Maratha state, founded by the remarkable queen-regent Ahilyabai Holkar, who built temples and rest-houses across India.
Today part of: India
1959–1963
United Suvadive Republic
The three southern atolls of the Maldives broke away under Abdullah Afeef for four years; their blue-green-red flag carried a crescent and three stars before the rebellion collapsed.
Today part of: Maldives
1846–1895
Kingdom of Huahine
A Society Islands kingdom that resisted France longer than its neighbours; its red-and-white flag with a French canton reflected an uneasy protectorate before annexation.
Today part of: France
1788–1880
Kingdom of Tahiti
The Pōmare dynasty's red-white-red flag flew over the Society Islands kingdom until France annexed Tahiti in 1880, ending nearly a century of independent Polynesian rule.
Today part of: France
1862–1866
Kingdom of Tonga (1862)
Tonga's first national flag was a plain white field with a red cross, but it proved too close to the new Red Cross emblem, so King George Tupou I added the red canton still used today.
Today part of: Tonga
1862–1889
Qing Dynasty (Triangular Dragon)
China's first national ensign was a triangular 'Yellow Dragon Flag' adopted for the imperial navy in 1862, before the familiar rectangular version replaced it in 1889.
Today part of: China
1915–1916
Empire of China (1915–1916)
When president Yuan Shikai declared himself emperor in 1915, he revived a cross-and-stripes flag for his short-lived monarchy, which collapsed amid revolts within 83 days.
Today part of: China
1913–1928
Republic of China (Twelve Symbols)
The early Republic's ornate state emblem, designed with input from the writer Lu Xun, combined the ancient Twelve Ornaments of imperial robes into a single republican coat of arms.
Today part of: China
1939–1945
Mengjiang (Mengkukuo)
The Japanese-backed Mongol puppet state in Inner Mongolia flew a striped flag whose bands stood for the Mongol, Han, Japanese, Manchu, and Hui peoples it claimed to unite.
Today part of: China
1933–1934
First East Turkestan Republic
A short-lived Islamic republic proclaimed at Kashgar in Xinjiang, flying the sky-blue Kökbayraq with a white crescent and star, crushed within months by Chinese and Soviet-backed forces.
Today part of: China
1944–1949
Second East Turkestan Republic
A Soviet-supported Uyghur and Kazakh republic in northern Xinjiang, absorbed into the People's Republic of China in 1949 after its leaders died in a mysterious plane crash.
Today part of: China
1921–1924
Bogd Khanate of Mongolia
After breaking from China, Mongolia was ruled by the Bogd Khan, a Buddhist theocrat, whose soyombo flag preceded the communist People's Republic proclaimed on his death in 1924.
Today part of: Mongolia
1924–1940
Mongolian People's Republic (1924)
Asia's first communist state after the USSR flew a red flag bearing the national soyombo symbol, a fire-and-yin-yang emblem that still anchors the modern Mongolian flag.
Today part of: Mongolia
1921–1944
Tuvan People's Republic
A tiny Soviet-aligned republic in southern Siberia, recognized only by the USSR and Mongolia; its famous triangular stamps were prized by collectors before the USSR annexed it in 1944.
Today part of: Russia
1889–1945
Empire of Japan (Naval Ensign)
The 16-rayed Rising Sun naval ensign, with the disc offset toward the hoist, flew over the Imperial Japanese Navy and is still used by the Maritime Self-Defense Force today.
Today part of: Japan
1919–1948
Provisional Government of Korea
Exiled in Shanghai after Japan's annexation, Korea's provisional government flew an early Taegukgi as it lobbied for independence; its legacy is claimed by the modern Republic of Korea.
Today part of: South Korea
1501–1736
Safavid Empire
The Persian empire that made Twelver Shia Islam the state religion flew a green banner bearing a golden lion and sun, the Lion and Sun motif that would symbolize Iran for centuries.
Today part of: Iran
1736–1796
Afsharid Dynasty
The empire of the conqueror Nader Shah, who sacked Delhi and seized the Peacock Throne; his imperial standard carried the lion and sun on a red and yellow field.
Today part of: Iran
1846–1925
Qajar Persia
The Lion and Sun on a tricolor of green, white, and red became Persia's flag under the Qajar shahs and endured through the empire until the 1979 revolution removed the emblem.
Today part of: Iran
1964–1979
Imperial State of Iran (Pahlavi)
Under the Pahlavi shahs the green-white-red flag bore a crowned Lion and Sun; the crowned emblem was stripped away after the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the monarchy.
Today part of: Iran
1880–1901
Emirate of Afghanistan (1880)
A plain black banner flown under Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, the 'Iron Amir', who consolidated the modern borders of Afghanistan as a buffer between the British and Russian empires.
Today part of: Afghanistan
1919–1921
Emirate of Afghanistan (1919)
The black flag with a central mosque-and-mihrab emblem flew when Afghanistan won full independence from Britain in 1919 under the reformist King Amanullah Khan.
Today part of: Afghanistan
1929
Kingdom of Afghanistan (1929)
The brief flag of the Tajik rebel Habibullah Kalakani, who seized Kabul for nine months in 1929 during the civil war that toppled King Amanullah's modernizing reforms.
Today part of: Afghanistan
1931–1973
Kingdom of Afghanistan
The black-red-green triband with a mosque emblem flew over the long reign of King Zahir Shah, until his cousin Daoud Khan abolished the monarchy in a 1973 coup.
Today part of: Afghanistan
1793–1863
Principality of Herat
A semi-independent Afghan principality fought over by Persia and Britain in the 'Great Game', whose siege in 1837–38 helped trigger the First Anglo-Afghan War.
Today part of: Afghanistan
1204–1461
Empire of Trebizond
A Byzantine Greek successor state on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia, the last fragment of the Roman world, which outlasted Constantinople by eight years before falling to the Ottomans.
Today part of: Turkey
1906–1934
Idrisid Emirate of Asir
A small emirate in the mountains of southwestern Arabia between the Hejaz and Yemen, independent for a generation before Saudi Arabia absorbed it after the 1934 Saudi-Yemeni war.
Today part of: Saudi Arabia
1963–1967
State of Aden
The British colony of Aden joined the Federation of South Arabia as a constituent state, flying a green-and-blue flag, just before independence as South Yemen in 1967.
Today part of: Yemen
1962–1967
Federation of South Arabia
A British-sponsored union of Aden and surrounding sultanates and emirates; its green-yellow-blue flag flew until the federation collapsed into independent South Yemen in 1967.
Today part of: Yemen
1967–1990
South Yemen (PDRY)
The Arab world's only Marxist state added a sky-blue triangle with a red star to the pan-Arab tricolor, until it merged with North Yemen to form the Republic of Yemen in 1990.
Today part of: Yemen
1728–1967
Sultanate of Lahej
An Abdali sultanate north of Aden, one of the many South Arabian princely states, flying a green flag with a white border before being absorbed into independent South Yemen.
Today part of: Yemen
1432–1967
Mahra Sultanate
A long-lived sultanate of the Mahra people in far eastern South Arabia, which also ruled the island of Socotra, abolished when South Yemen became independent in 1967.
Today part of: Yemen
1820–1970
Sultanate of Muscat
A plain red banner flew over the coastal Sultanate of Muscat, distinct from the inland Imamate of Oman, until Sultan Qaboos united the country and modernized its flag in 1970.
Today part of: Oman
1968–1971
Trucial States
The collective flag of the British-protected sheikhdoms of the lower Gulf, a red field with a green-bordered white stripe, flown briefly before they federated as the United Arab Emirates.
Today part of: United Arab Emirates
1924–1959
Kingdom of Iraq
The Hashemite kingdom's black-green-white flag with a red trapezoid and two white stars derived from the Arab Revolt, flying until the 1958 coup that ended the monarchy.
Today part of: Iraq
1938–1939
Hatay State
A short-lived republic around Alexandretta, carved from French-mandate Syria with a flag nearly identical to Turkey's, before it voted to join Turkey in 1939.
Today part of: Turkey
1399–1947
Kingdom of Mysore
Ruled by the Wadiyar dynasty, the south Indian kingdom flew a flag bearing the mythical Gandaberunda, a two-headed eagle still used as the state emblem of Karnataka.
Today part of: India
1102–1949
Kingdom of Cochin
An ancient kingdom on India's Malabar coast, an early ally of the Portuguese and Dutch, whose spice ports made it one of the wealthiest of the southern Indian states.
Today part of: India
1642–1975
Kingdom of Sikkim
The Himalayan kingdom of the Namgyal dynasty flew a flag bearing a Buddhist gankyil and prayer wheel, until a 1975 referendum made it India's 22nd state.
Today part of: India
1743–2008
Kingdom of Nepal
The world's only non-rectangular national flag, a double pennon of two stacked triangles bearing a moon and sun, flew over the Shah dynasty's kingdom until Nepal became a republic in 2008.
Today part of: Nepal
1802–1955
Princely State of Bahawalpur
A wealthy princely state in the Punjab desert ruled by the Abbasi Nawabs, whose ruler was among the first to accede to the new nation of Pakistan in 1947.
Today part of: Pakistan
1511–1920
Khanate of Khiva
A Central Asian khanate on the oasis of Khwarezm, a major Silk Road and slave-trade center, which became a Russian protectorate before the Bolsheviks toppled its khan in 1920.
Today part of: Uzbekistan
1709–1876
Khanate of Kokand
A khanate in the fertile Fergana Valley, one of the three great Uzbek states, conquered and annexed by the Russian Empire in 1876 during its advance across Central Asia.
Today part of: Uzbekistan
1785–1920
Emirate of Bukhara
The last emir of this ancient Central Asian state, a Russian protectorate, fled when the Red Army stormed Bukhara in 1920, ending centuries of Uzbek dynastic rule.
Today part of: Uzbekistan
1920–1925
Bukharan People's Soviet Republic
The Soviet-aligned republic that replaced the Emirate of Bukhara, flying a red flag with Arabic-script and a crescent, before being partitioned into the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs.
Today part of: Uzbekistan
1917–1920
Alash Autonomy
A short-lived Kazakh national government formed amid the Russian Civil War by the Alash Orda intelligentsia, suppressed by the Bolsheviks who then built the Kazakh SSR.
Today part of: Kazakhstan
1632–1946
Sultanate of Deli
A Malay sultanate on Sumatra's east coast that grew immensely rich from Dutch tobacco plantations around Medan, before the 1946 social revolution swept away the Sumatran sultanates.
Today part of: Indonesia
1528–1948
Sultanate of Johor
Successor to the Malacca sultanate, Johor was a major Malay power on the peninsula's tip; its colors survive in the modern Malaysian state of Johor.
Today part of: Malaysia
1824–1911
Sultanate of Riau-Lingga
A Malay maritime sultanate of the islands between Sumatra and Borneo, formed when the British and Dutch split the old Johor realm, dissolved by the Dutch in 1911.
Today part of: Indonesia
1882–1946
North Borneo (Chartered Company)
Modern Sabah was ruled for over sixty years by the British North Borneo Chartered Company, one of the last territories administered by a private trading company.
Today part of: Malaysia
1899–1901
First Philippine Republic
Asia's first constitutional republic, declared under Emilio Aguinaldo; its sun-and-stars flag — still the modern Philippine flag — flew in war against Spain and then the United States.
Today part of: Philippines
1899–1903
Republic of Zamboanga
A short-lived republic on the Zamboanga Peninsula of Mindanao that declared independence amid the collapse of Spanish rule, before American forces incorporated it into the Philippines.
Today part of: Philippines
1975–1979
Democratic Kampuchea
The Khmer Rouge state flew a red flag with a yellow three-towered Angkor Wat; its brutal four-year rule under Pol Pot killed an estimated quarter of Cambodia's population.
Today part of: Cambodia
1947–1975
Kingdom of Laos
The royal kingdom flew a red flag with a white three-headed elephant beneath a parasol, the sacred Erawan, until the communist Pathet Lao abolished the monarchy in 1975.
Today part of: Laos
1946–1950
State of East Indonesia
A Dutch-sponsored federal state covering Sulawesi and the eastern islands during the Indonesian National Revolution, dissolved into the unitary Republic of Indonesia in 1950.
Today part of: Indonesia
1948–1950
State of Pasundan
A Dutch-backed Sundanese federal state in West Java set up during the revolution, one of several puppet states that were quickly absorbed into the unitary Indonesian republic.
Today part of: Indonesia
1950
Republic of South Maluku
Largely Christian Ambonese proclaimed an independent republic in the Moluccas in 1950; its blue-white-green-red flag is still flown by an exiled government-in-exile in the Netherlands.
Today part of: Indonesia
1936–1991
Kazakh SSR
A red Soviet flag with a turquoise lower band and the hammer, sickle and star, flown over Soviet Kazakhstan until its independence in 1991.
Today part of: Kazakhstan
1936–1991
Kirghiz SSR
The red flag of Soviet Kyrgyzstan, crossed at its centre by blue-and-white stripes, used until the republic became independent Kyrgyzstan.
Today part of: Kyrgyzstan
1929–1991
Tajik SSR
A red flag with white and green horizontal bands beneath the hammer, sickle and star — the Soviet flag of Tajikistan, carved out of the Uzbek SSR in 1929.
Today part of: Tajikistan
1925–1991
Turkmen SSR
A red Soviet flag crossed by two blue stripes, flown over Soviet Turkmenistan; the modern country adopted its green national flag in 1992.
Today part of: Turkmenistan
1925–1991
Uzbek SSR
A red flag with a central blue band edged in white above and below the hammer, sickle and star — the Soviet flag of Uzbekistan until independence.
Today part of: Uzbekistan
1920–1991
Azerbaijan SSR
The red Soviet flag of Azerbaijan with a blue lower band and the hammer, sickle and star, used until the republic restored its independence in 1991.
Today part of: Azerbaijan
1906–1980
New Hebrides Condominium
The Anglo-French condominium that jointly governed the islands of modern Vanuatu from 1906 until independence in 1980 — famously run by two parallel colonial administrations at once.
Today part of: Vanuatu
1947–1994
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
A US-administered UN trust territory across Micronesia after the Second World War, which split into the modern Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau and the Northern Marianas.
Today part of: Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau
1526–1857
Mughal Empire
One of history's great empires, ruling most of the Indian subcontinent at its height; its green 'Alam' banner bore a lion and rising sun. Builders of the Taj Mahal, the Mughals were finally deposed by the British after the 1857 rebellion.
Today part of: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
1752–1885
Konbaung Dynasty
The last dynasty of Burmese kings — the 'Third Burmese Empire' — whose peacock banner flew until the British annexed Burma after three Anglo-Burmese Wars.
Today part of: Myanmar