The flag was originally designed in 1885 by the Colombo Committee, in Colombo, Ceylon ... At the 1952 World Fellowship of Buddhists, the flag of Buddhists was adopted as the International Buddhist Flag. ... The flag's six vertical bands represent the six colors of the aura which Buddhists believe emanated from the body of the Buddha when he attained Enlightenment:[6][1]
Blue (Pāli and Sanskrit: nīla): The Spirit of Universal Compassion
Yellow (Pāli and Sanskrit: pīta): The Middle Way
Red (Pāli and Sanskrit: lohitaka): The Blessings of Practice – achievement, wisdom, virtue, fortune and dignity
White (Pāli: odāta; Sanskrit: avadāta): The Purity of Dhamma – leading to liberation, timeless
Orange (Pāli: mañjeṭṭha; Sanskrit: mañjiṣṭhā - alternatively scarlet): The Wisdom of the Buddha's teachings
The sixth vertical band, on the fly, is made up of a combination of the five other colors' rectangular bands, and represents a compound of said colors in the aura's spectrum. This new, compound color is referred to as the Truth of the Buddha's teaching or Pabbhassara ('essence of light').
In Japan, there is a traditional Buddhist flag (五色幕—goshikimaku) which has different colors but is sometimes merged with the design of the international flag to represent international cooperation.[citation needed]
The Japanese Jōdo Shinshū replaces the orange stripe with pink.[citation needed]
In Tibet, the stripes' colors represent the different colors of Buddhist robes comprehensively united in one banner. Tibetan monastic robes are maroon, so the orange stripes in the original design are often replaced with maroon.[citation needed]
Tibetan Buddhists in Nepal replace the orange stripes with plum stripes.[citation needed]
Theravāda Buddhists in Myanmar replace orange with pink, the color of the robe of the country's bhikkhunīs.[citation needed]
Theravāda Buddhists in Thailand opt the usage of a yellow flag with a red dhammacakka; it is sometimes paired with the international Buddhist flag.[citation needed]
Soka Gakkai uses a tricolor of blue, yellow, and red.[7] It is often mistaken to the flag of Romania.
Japanese version: