of the Buddha are flourishing and spreading. Flag used by the People's Republic of China As the People's Republic of China took over Tibet in 1951, the PRC has outlawed the Snow Lion flag after the 1959 Tibetan uprising and has used its national flag in the Tibet Autonomous Region to represent Tibet. It contains a Chinese red field with five golden stars charged at the canton. The design features one large star, with four smaller stars in an arc set off towards the fly. Design and early use In February 1913, shortly after the fall of the Qing dynasty, the 13th Dalai Lama, Tibet's political and spiritual leader, declared independence from China and began modernising the Tibetan army. According to Tsarong Dasang Dadul, the commander-in-chief of the modern Tibetan army, in 1916, a new national flag was adopted by the Dalai Lama and all army regiments were ordered to carry the flag in its present form. Gyalten Namgyal, tailor to both the 13th and 14th Dalai Lamas wrote, "When I was fourteen, the Dalai Lama decided he wanted a Tibetan national flag made, and designed it himself. When a prototype was approved and the first flag commissioned, I was the one to execute the work." In addition to being carried by Tibet's army, the flag was displayed on public buildings of the Ganden Phodrang government. Historical footage shows the flag flying at the foot of the Potala Palace, the site of the Dalai Lama's government in Tibet. The snow lion flag motif was also used on a flag seen by English diplomat, Sir Eric Teichman, flying above a Tibetan government building during the 1917–1918 hostilities between Sichuan and Tibet: "Over the Kalon Lama’s residence... floats the banner of Tibet, a yellow flag bearing a device like a lion in green, with a white snow mountain and a sun and moon in the corner." Outside of Tibet, the flag was featured in publications by foreign governments, reference books, academic journals, and in culturally significant works up until 1959. One of its first official international appearances was in a British Crown publication in 1923, "Drawings of the Flags in Use at the Present Time by Various Nations". It was also included in the German Ministry of Defense's Naval Command, "Flaggenbuch," in 1926 and in the Italian Naval Ministry's "Raccolta delle Bandiere Fiamme e Insegne in uso presso le Diverse Nazioni" in