Col. Olcott, and the International Buddhist Flag. Most people (outside of Sri Lanka, where they have statues of him in public places) do not realize that an American, Col. Henry Steele Olcott (1832-1907) is indeed the designer of the Buddhist flag, among his many other contributions.

                            Blue: Loving kindness, peace and universal compassion

                            Yellow: The Middle Path - avoiding extremes, emptiness

                            Red: The blessings of practice - achievement, wisdom, virtue, fortune and dignity

                            White: The purity of Dharma - leading to liberation, outside of time or space

                            Orange: The Buddha's teachings - wisdom