Indonesian stamps

Returning after what feels like a long absence, I wasn't at all sure I'd be able to find any se-tenant stamps but I was happy to find these from Indonesia very quickly. The "Forests: Nature at Your Service" stamps cam with the rice terraces card, the Scouting ones were on a different card.  It's just a shame the cancellation was so messy.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Borobudur Temple

One of the 72 seated Buddha statues which surround the main dome of Borobudur Temple in Indonesia.  The statue is facing the active Merapi volcano which last erupted in March 2014, when this card was sent to me. Merapi can be translated as Mountain of Fire.

The Borobudur Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Belarus, map and stamps

I struggled to know what exactly was meant by folk art, where to draw the line between it and "fine" art. Wikipedia defines it as art used to decorate useful objects and the art in itself is not a source of income, though even they say the lines are blurred.

It was on this map card that I first saw one of the Belarusian decorative applied art series of stamps.  In fact, even though the card is cartoon style, it appears that the woman is holding a cloth decorated with embroidery, the skirt and hat too.

The top stamp illustrates satin stitch (and comes from a minisheet, while the second is cross stitch.  There is a third which shows counted satin stitch.

They were produced by the Centre for Belarusian culture, language and literature research.  this is a picture of the three mini-sheets :

From Kiev Philately Club

N is the surface mail rate for postcards going abroad, M is the air-mail rate for a postcard abroad, and H is the surface mail rate for a letter going abroad.

Now that I had the idea of folk art in my mind, I saw several other examples of folk art:

Batik from Indonesia. Batik Basurek is produced in the province of Bengkulu on the island of Sumatra.

A joint issue between Serbia and Algeria showing what I take to be a carpet from Algeria.  The minisheet shows an alternative design for the same postage rate but the stamp is in Cyrillic script.

From Post of Serbia

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Borobudur, Indonesia

These carvings are just a fraction of those that can be seen on the Buddhist temple at Borobudur in Indonesia.  It is the world's largest Buddhist monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It was probably built around 750 AD but then became buried by volcanic ash from Moutn Merapi.  The area appears to have been deserted after one such eruption and by the time people came back, many years later, it was forgotten.  It wasn't until 1814 that it was rediscovered and cleared by 1835.  Sadly many of the stones, statues and so on,  were given away but a large proportion of the complex has since been restored almost to its original state.

Tea for two, or three

Indonesia produces jasmine tea, green tea as well as the main product, black tea.  Almost all is exported.  Tea was introduced to the country in the 18th century by the Dutch but the industry went into decline after the second World War.  However it was modernised and has picked up again during the last 30 or so years.

Part of the modernisation could have been to introduce machine picking but there is nothing to compare with hand picked tea leaves.  It is labour intensive and exhausting and involves a lot of skill.  The pickers can recognise precisely when the leaves should be picked to provide the best quality tea.

The next time I have a cup of tea, I will remember this.  I must go and put the kettle on.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Indonesia

Three postcards arrived together from Indonesia the other day, from different people and sent on different dates.  It makes you wonder if they were saving them up somewhere until they had enough mail to send to the UK.

This is one of the postcards but the stamps are from all three.  A beautiful selection. The leftmost of the second and third set are from a set of four depicting islands, small outlying islands, Pulau-pulau Kecil Terluar..

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

River life

The river Musi in Palembang is at the heart of its life.  It serves for washing, bathing and fishing.  The traditional houses have distinct pyramid-like roofs and are built on stilts to protect from the frequent flooding in the area.  Some houses like the ones shown are actually built over the river waters.

Trishaws

Trishaw riders relaxing by a busy crossroad and watching the world pass by.

Trishaws, otherwise known as pedicabs, bike cabs, becak, cycle rickshaws or simply rickshaws.  Unlike the old rickshaws which were pulled along by runners, these are propelled by pedal power.  The ones you see in the card, typical of Indonesia and Vietnam, are designed with the cyclist behind the passengers while others in south Asia have the passengers behind the driver.  In the Philippines, the passengers are alongside the driver.

Interestingly, although the trishaw was considered an icon of the city of Jakarta in Indonesia, they were banned from the city centre in 1970.  However, more modern versions are being adopted in cities such as London, Edinburgh, and many major cities in the USA.  Often they are used for tourists as an alternative to taxis or other similar transportation.

Let's not forget Indonesia

 A traditional ancestral house in Tana Toraja, a small area on Sulawesi island, Indonesia.  At least 11 people were killed on Sulawesi after a landslide earlier this month.

Borobudur is a 9th century Buddhist temple, the world's largest.  White volcanic ash has been falling on it since Tuesday when Mount Merapi began erupting, killing about 30 people.

This is the central post office in Yogyakarta in the middle of the island of Java, Indonesia.  More than 50,000 people are living in cramped temporary accommodation near Yogyakarta after they had to evacuate their homes earlier in the week but many have been returning to feed livestock.  Since this morning, Mount Merapi has been erupting again, violently.

For some reason this tragedy in Indonesia has received little media attention in the UK.  We had full coverage of the Chilean mine disaster but nothing of this one.  It's somehow a reverse of the usual "good news doesn't sell".

This is a post for Postcard Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.