Timor-Leste

What the source says

Checked against the constituting document

The National Flag is rectangular and is formed by two isosceles triangles, the bases of which are overlapping. One triangle is black and its height is equal to one-third of the length overlapped to the yellow triangle, whose height is equal to half the length of the Flag. In the centre of the black triangle there is a white star of five ends, meaning the light that guides. [...] The colours mean: yellow – the traces of colonialism; black – the obscurantism that needs to be overcome; red – the struggle for national liberation; white – peace.

[1] Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Section 15 (National Flag) (Government of Timor-Leste), read on 2026-07-17. Backs which colors the flag has, what the colors mean, the proportions and the description of the design on this page.

Checked means compared against the quoted text, not read by a person. What the marks mean.

Colors and meaning

Red[1] #DC241F
The struggle for national liberation[1]
Yellow[1] #FFC726
The traces of colonialism[1]
Black[1] #000000
The obscurantism that needs to be overcome[1]
White[1] #FFFFFF
Peace[1]

What the law specifies[1]

Two overlapping isosceles triangles sit at the hoist of a red field: a yellow one whose height is half the length of the flag, and a black one a third of it, bearing a white five-pointed star that the Constitution calls "the light that guides", turned toward the flag's left edge. The Constitution also states what each colour means outright, which few constitutions do.

Symbolism and history

The design took effect at independence in 2002, after a UN-administered transition following Indonesian withdrawal.

Most similar flags

The 6 closest of the 194 other national flags, ranked by a similarity index computed from the flag images themselves. The number is that index, 0–100 — not a claim that the two flags are “X% identical”.

Computed at build time: each flag is rasterised to 64x48, and the score is 0.55 × colour overlap + 0.45 × structure. A different weighting would rank these differently. How the index works.

Sources

[1] Verified against Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Section 15 (National Flag) (Government of Timor-Leste) on 2026-07-17. Backs which colors the flag has, what the colors mean, the proportions and the description of the design on this page. The passage it was checked against is quoted at the top of this entry.

Further reading: Flag of Timor-Leste on Wikipedia