The background is a yellow, green, and red tricolor, meant to honour the tricolours used during the independence struggle.

[6] It was hoisted for the first time at 4:25 AM on 4 January 1948 when Burma gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

The big white star in the canton and the red field honour the Resistance Flag and indicate the anti-fascist struggle.

The usage of stars is for the nature of the stars: never stopping, never cancelling the chosen path, always moving forward, being a guide for travellers, and existing since the beginning of the world indicating that Burma is with its rightful glory as an independent republic on the earth, while the colour white represents purity, righteousness and steadfastness.

[8]: 8 [9] On 3 January 1974, it was replaced by the State Flag of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma.

The colour representations are also different: white is for purity and virtue, red for bravery and decisiveness, blue for peacefulness and steadfastness.

The 14 equal-sized white stars represent the equality and unity of the 14 members (7 states and 7 divisions) of the Union.

[12][13] The 14-star flag was hung upside down during the 8888 Uprising of 1988 by demonstrators as a sign of protest against the military government.

[19] In these tricolours, the color yellow symbolizes the Sasana (Buddhism) and education, green represents staple grains, crops, minerals and jewelry, red signifies bravery or courage, and the peacock represents the Konbaung.

In 1945, when the Burma National Army changed sides and fought together with local resistance forces against the Japanese.

[25] In September 2007, another new design was proposed with a larger white star in the middle and with the stripes in a different order, namely: yellow, green, and red.

Four political parties, the NLD, SNLD, ZCD and NUP proposed four new designs for the flag.