Colours
The five colours of the flag represent the six colours of the
aura that emanated from the
body of the Buddha when he attained Enlightenment:
Blue (Nila):
Loving kindness, peace and universal compassion
Yellow (Pita): The Middle Path - avoiding
extremes, emptiness Red (Lohita): The blessings of
practice - achievement, wisdom, virtue, fortune and
dignity White (Odata): The purity
of Dharma - leading to liberation, outside of time or
space Orange (Manjesta): The Buddha's
teachings - wisdom
The sixth vertical band, on the fly, is made up of a combination
of rectangular bands of the five other colours, and represents a
compound of the other five colours in the aura's spectrum. This compound colour
is referred to as Pabbhassara ('essence of light').
In Tibet, the colours of the
stripes represent the different colours of Buddhist robes united in
one banner. Tibetan monastic robes are maroon, so the orange
stripes in the original design are often replaced with maroon.