Flag of East Timor depicts five-pointed star
The national flag of East Timor (Portuguese: Bandeira de Timor-Leste) is one of the official symbols of East Timor. It consists of a red field with the black isosceles triangle based on the hoist-side bearing a white five-pointed star in the center superimposed on the larger yellow triangle, also based on the hoist-side, that extends to the center of the flag."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 white star has one of its ends turned towards the left side end of the flag. The remaining part of the flag is red."With the constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste on November 28, 1975, the flag was officially adopted for the first time. The symbolism of this flag was given the following meaning:Black represents the four centuries of colonial oppression.
The yellow arrowhead represents "the traces of colonialism in East Timor's history" and the struggle for independence.
Red stands for the spilled blood of the population.
The white star symbolises hope for a better future.Today, both the colours and their meanings are specified in the new Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste of 2002 (Part I, Section 15):
Black symbolises obscurantism, which must be overcome.
Yellow represents the wealth of the country.
Red symbolises the struggle for national liberation.
The white star, or "the light that guides", is white to represent peace.Flags are powerful symbols in East Timorese culture and have a high cultural significance. They play a significant role in East Timorese identification as a community. Flags are automatically attributed a symbolic power, making them a sacred object.The armed resistance against the Indonesians was led by Falintil, which was originally the military arm of Fretilin. In 1987, its leader Xanana Gusmão transformed Falintil into a national army of East Timorese resistance. He designed a new blue-white-green-black flag of the Falintil. The Conselho Nacional de Resistência Timorense (CNRT), the umbrella organisation of East Timorese resistance founded in 1998, adopted the Falintil flag as a politically neutral symbol. They replaced the lettering "FALINTIL" with "CNRT" and changed the symbols in the shield. The Falintil used a yellow five-pointed star, two traditional swords (suriks) and three feathers. The CNRT used a spear and two arrows instead of the feathers, and the star was now white. The Falintil adopted this version of the coat of arms for its flag relatively soon. The shield in the flag of the CNRT is also found in slightly modified form with the same elements in the later first coat of arms of East Timor (2002-2006) after the restoration of independence. In the Falintil camps, it was strictly forbidden to walk through the shadow of the flag. Allegedly, this rule dates back to colonial times, when Timorese were beaten up if they walked through the shadow of the flag of Portugal.In the 1999 independence referendum in East Timor, the population could choose between full independence and remaining part of Indonesia as the Special Autonomous Region of East Timor (SARET). Article 20 of SARET's draft constitution provided for the possibility of adopting its own coat of arms, but not its own flag. Instead, the flag of Indonesia was to continue to be used.
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