In the middle of the red base is the yellow sun. The flag was made official in 1992, after gaining independence from the dissolved Soviet Union. Forty streaks of light are shining from the sun in the center. The streaks of light are considered to be "the 40 ethnic groups that integrated as one under the red flag, lead of the hero Manas, and founded the current Kirgyzstan people". The heraldic emblem designed in the sun is "a design of the ceiling of the traditional Kyrgyz mobile housing yurt ".