This flag was originally designed in 1885 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 1950 at the inaugural conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, it was adopted as the flag of Buddhists throughout the world. The five colors of the flag represent the six colors of the aura which Buddhists believe emanated from the body of the Buddha when he attained Enlightenment. Blue (Nila): loving kindness, peace and universal compassion. Yellow (Pita): the Middle Path - avoiding extremes, emptiness. Red (Lohita): the blessings of practice - achievement, wisdom, virtue, fortune and dignity. White (Odata): the purity of Dharma - leading to liberation, outside of time or space. Orange (Manjesta): the Buddha's teachings - wisdom. In Tibet, the colors of the stripes represent the different colors of Buddhist robes united in one banner. Tibetan monastic robes are maroon, so the orange stripes in the original design are often replaced with maroon. The sixth vertical band is a combination of rectangular bands in these five colors, and represents a compound of the other five colors in the aura's spectrum referred to as the 'Essence of Light' (Pabbhassara).