Flag of Penang

Penang

Use	Civil and state flag
Proportion	1:2
Adopted	1949
Design	A triband of light blue, white and yellow; an areca nut palm tree within the middle white band.

The Flag of Penang consists of three vertical bands and an areca-nut palm on a grassy mount in the centre. All three bands are of equal width. From left to right, the colour of each band is light blue, white and yellow.

The colours of the flag are derived from the tinctures of the coat of arms of Penang that was granted by King George VI in the 1940s. Light blue denotes the sea that surrounds Penang Island, white represents peace and yellow for the prosperity of the state.^[1]

The areca-nut palm, known as pokok pinang in Malay, symbolises the tree from which Penang got its name. The tree and its grassy mount is centred within the middle white band.

The flag was first adopted in 1949 after Penang became a component state of the Federation of Malaya. The flag was slightly modified to its present form in the 1960s by removing a torse of blue and white at the bottom of the grassy mount.^[2]

Historical flags[]

Flag	Duration	Political Entity	Description
	1874-1941	Straits Settlements	Adopted after the Straits Settlements, which consisted of Penang, Singapore and Malacca, became a British crown colony.
	1946-1949	Crown Colony of Penang	Adopted after the dissolution of the Straits Settlements, with Penang becoming a separate British crown colony. Penang joined the Malayan Union in 1946.
	1949-1965	Crown colony of Penang (1949-1957) State of Penang (1957-1965)	Adopted in 1949 when Penang became part of the Federation of Malaya, a successor of the Malayan Union. This original flag continued to be used up to 1965, when it was modified to its present form.

City flags[]

Defunct flag of the George Town City Council (now succeeded by the Penang Island City Council).

The State of Penang is further divided between two local governments. The Penang Island City Council administers Penang's capital city of George Town and the entirety of Penang Island, whilst the Seberang Perai City Council governs Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Each of the local governments flies its own city flag. But, the defunt flag of George Town still can be seen within the city.

Local government	Penang Island City Council	Seberang Perai City Council
Flag
Municipality	Penang Island	Seberang Perai

Previously, the city of George Town also had its own flag, which dated back to the grant of city status to the George Town City Council in 1957. The original city flag is no longer in use; the City Council was eventually merged with the Penang Island Rural District Council to form, in 1974, the Penang Island Municipal Council, which subsequently became the Penang Island City Council in 2015.

References[]

External links[]

• Penang at Flags of the World
• Tourism Penang State Government Official Website