舉世無雙的尼泊爾國旗

What’s with the Unusual Shape of Nepal’s Flag？？

Host： Here’s something that’s always 1）intrigued me—the flag of Nepal. Its shape is unlike that of any other country’s flag. Nepal’s is not a 2）rectangle， or even a square. It’s kind of like two sideways triangles， or maybe more like two 3）pennants， one on top of the other.

Graham Bartram knows why that is. He’s a 4）vexillologist， and， yup， I had to look that one up too. A vexillologist is someone who studies flag history and symbolism. So， Graham Bartram， how would you describe the shape of Nepal’s flag？

Graham Bartram： It’s definitely two pennants on top of each other. That’s where it comes from.

Host： And the colour？ And what do we see on the flag？

Graham： Well， the flag is basically red with a blue border. The red is Nepal’s national colour， and it’s said to come from the 5）rhododendron plant， which grows in the Himalayas， and blue is meant to represent peace. And on the top pennant you have the moon， and on the bottom pennant you have the sun.

Host： And those two triangles， I mean， does the Nepalese Government kind of come down with any 6）dictum on that？

Graham： They say Hinduism and Buddhism.

Host： OK. So why does it have such a distinct shape？ Why did Nepal have to be different from the rest of the world？

Graham： It’s more a case of the rest of the world just copied Europe， and Nepal decided not to. Europe chose rectangular flags because that was what we came up with， and， really， we came up with national flags before the rest of the world had them. And they all sort of said， “Oh， in order to be a national flag， you have to be rectangular，”and Nepal went， “No， actually， we’re quite happy with our traditional shaped flags.”

It’s a traditional shape in that region. If you think of the Hindu 7）Devaja flags， they’re triangular， and the 8）Sikh Khanda flag， that’s also a triangular flag. So triangular flags are very culturally normal in that part of the world.

Host： I’ve read that the Nepalese flag is the most mathematical flag in the world. Can you explain what that actually means？

Graham： I think it’s to do with the way the constitution describes the flag. It describes it in very detailed 9）geometrical ways. So the distance between point A and point B is 1/27th of the distance between point C and point D， and you really have to sort of brush up on your geometry in order to be able to draw it from the description.

Host： Yeah， really. You need to know the 10）Pythagorean Theorem. Is that unusual that the constitution has such detailed instructions about what the flag is supposed to look like？

Graham： Absolutely， yes！ Normally the sort of description you’ll get is “the flag consists of three stripes” or “the flag is red， yellow and pink with a purple flower in the middle.” They don’t normally go into what diameter the petals are on the flower. They normally just say， “see attached picture.”

Host： You know， there are rules on how to fold the American flag. It’s kind of divided up into kind of rectangular lengths， and then 11）triangulated into this little kind of triangular 12）pouch. Any rules on Nepal’s flag and folding those two triangles？

Graham： I’ve never come across any. If they follow 13）British habit， they’d probably just roll it up into a tube.

主持人：這是我一直很感興趣的東西——尼泊爾國旗。它的形狀與其他國家的國旗都不一樣。尼泊爾的國旗既不是長方形的，也不是正方形的。它像兩個側向的三角形，或者說，更像是兩面三角旗，一個疊在另一個之上。

格雷厄姆·巴特拉姆知道個中原因。他是一名旗幟學專家——沒錯，我也要查一下這個名稱的意思。旗幟學專家就是研究旗幟的歷史及其象征意義的人。那么，格雷厄姆·巴特拉姆，你會如何描述尼泊爾國旗的形狀呢？

格雷厄姆·巴特拉姆：那肯定是兩個上下相疊的三角形，那就是這面國旗的起源。

主持人：顏色呢？我們在國旗上看到什么顏色？

格雷厄姆：嗯，國旗的基本色是紅色，有藍色的旗邊。紅色是尼泊爾的民族色彩，據說來自生長在喜馬拉雅山區的杜鵑花，而藍色則代表和平。上部的三角旗中有一個月亮，下部的三角旗中是一個太陽。

主持人：那兩個三角形，我的意思是，尼泊爾政府對這兩個三角形有任何特別的解釋嗎？

格雷厄姆：他們說這分別表示印度教和佛教。

主持人：好。那為什么這面國旗會采用如此獨特的形狀呢？為什么尼泊爾要與世界上其他國家不同？

格雷厄姆：更確切來說，其實是因為世界上其他國家都只是仿照歐洲的做法，而尼泊爾決定不那么做。歐洲選擇了長方形的旗幟，只是因為我們歐洲人最初想到的國旗就是這個形狀的。確實，我們是世界上最早出現國旗的地方。其他國家都說：“噢，為了表明這是國旗，它必須是長方形的。……