I've Moved
No, I haven't moved anywhere physically. It's just a move in cyberspace.
Please visit my new blog at http://songphon.wordpress.com/
"There is nothing permanent except change." -- Heraclitus (Greek Philosopher, 540 BC - 480 BC)
No, I haven't moved anywhere physically. It's just a move in cyberspace.
It's the time of a year again to celebrate the month of love. This year, like last year, Thailand Post has issued the "Rose" postage stamp in the vertical shape. The rose featured in this year stamp is "Chulalongkorn" rose, a hybrid between a European rose and a Chinese rose. The rose was named after His Majesty the King Chulalongkorn (King Rama V) by the Royal consort, Her Highness Princes Jao Dara Rasamee in remembrance of her Royal husband. In fact, H.H. Princess Jao Dara Rasamee had her own experimental farm in Dara Pirom Palace in Mae Rim district, Chaingmai province. One of her favorite species of rose is this beautiful "Chulalongkorn" rose which has a long straight stem with a big dark pink flower and a strong sweet fragrance. Thus, the "Chulalongkorn" rose stamp is a perfect love memorabilia.
This set of stamps is released to commemorate one year of the Tsunami, the giant tidal wave, disaster in Thailand. There are 5,395 people known to have been killed in Thailand by the disaster, and nearly 3,000 people were still missing. More than 2,000 casualties were the tourists.
Following the big success of two previous Buddhism related postage stamps, Thailand Post has come up with another fail-proof popular postage stamp depicted four of Thailand's greatest monks of all time. These highly revered monks have been greatly respected by Buddhists all over Thailand for years even though some passed away more than hundred years ago. The popularity of this set of postage stamps could perfectly reflect Thai society and culture which is closely based on Buddhism and its related icons.
This set of postage stamps has been announced to be released since the fifth of December 2004. However, it's been postponed and release a year later. I think Thailand Post has to make sure that it has an official letter of acknowledgement from the Royal Palace Secretariat Office before it could issue this highly valuable postage stamps depicting His Majesty the King's pictures and his initiative project on the "new theory" agriculture which promotes self-sufficient economy, in the time Thailand faced an economic crisis a couple of years ago. Without all these projects, Thai farmers would have been suffered from the crisis in an immeasurable degree. Thus, the postage stamps perfectly commemorate the talent of His Majesty the King and are certainly worth collecting.
This year could be considered as a new era for the design of Thai postage stamps. I guess it might be because of the autonomy of Thailand Post from the state enterprise and becoming the company limited. In order to generate more revenue as there would be no more supporting fund from the government, Thailand post has to come up with a better service quality and more imaginative idea for the collector's stamps that "could be sold" well. First, there was the first ever circular shape stamp in Thailand (see the "Panda Stamp") and now there is the first ever triangular shape stamp to be released.
Thailand and China share a long history together. In fact, it is said that Thai people immigrated to the land called "Thailand" from somewhere in the southern part of China some thousands years ago. Through thick and thin, the relation between Thailand and China is stronger from generations to generations of people. Anyway, after World War the Second, the official diplomatic relation between Kingdom of Thailand and People's Republic of China was established on July 1, 1975. This year marks the 30th anniversary of such relation. To commemorate this auspicious event, Thailand Post issue a set of 2 commemorative stamps depicted pictures of Pandas named "Chuang Chuang" and "Lin Hui" (or "Taewan" and "Taewee" in Thai.) These pandas came from China under a governmental contract and will stay in Chiang Mai zoo for a limited time of 10 years. They act as ambassadors of goodwill and symbolize an awareness for wildlife preservation in Thailand.