COVER N. 426 - MALAYSIA

Postmark: Pusat Mel Kota Kinabalu Sabah 12.02.2024 

Posted on the  12th February; received on the 19th March 2024

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A rather full envelope from Malaysia, with plenty of stamps on its face. Terima kasih, Ka Ming!

The first time Ka wrote me,  the letter took about 3 and a half months to get to my doorstep, It seems things have improved quite noticeably because now it took just about a month and a week to travel the same distance, which is, of course, great news.

As in the first letter he sent me, Ka Ming made sure there were a lot of stamps on the envelope, something he asked me to also try to do in my response, but which I unfortunately find quite hard to  consummate since series with "small change" stamps is something of the past, in many places, Portugal Included. Anyway, I'll do my best, with domestic postage stamps, next time I write him.

Stamps Left to right

- "Traditional Carftwork of Malaysia", such was the theme chosen for a four stamp set (60 and 80 sen; 1 and 5 Ringgit) issued on 04DEC2019. The 80 sen stamp from this set on the cover is illustrated with a  Sarawak Vase, The origins of Sarawak pottery being traceable to Chinese  immigrant artisans, it seems.

- The Penang Funicular in Georgetown, Malaysia, started its operation in 1923. Over the years it has suffered natural adaptations in terms of its rolling stock, this being the theme chosen for the very beautiful set of three stamps (30 and 60 sen; 1.30 ringgit) issued on the occasion of the centenary of the infrastructure. It should also be noted that in 2010, the funicular suffered a major update with the introduction not only of new rolling stock but also of new tracks.

The stamps were issued on 22AUG2023 and the lesser value stamp, with the original funicular carriages can be seen on the cover.

- Invasive species are always a problem, because they conflict with local ones, sometimes overrunning them to a worrying degree. That is not to say that invasive species cannot be beautiful and attractive. In fact they usually are, this being the reason why they were once imported in the past.

This is the case of Ipomoea indica, Blue morning glory, which in my country goes by the name of Bons-dias, and which is believed to be a native of the Americas, from Florida to South America.

I once spent a full day in the coast of the Arrábida region, in a voluntary team, participating in  a cleaning operation of the  the local vegetation, during which we removed a lot, and I mean a lot, of this beautiful flowering plant of the Convolvulaceae family, which also includes the much beloved sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas).

there are two stamps with the same image of a blue morning glory on the cover. The one i the block of four (90 sen) was issued on 01JUL2010, as part of a definitive series themed on garden flowers.

The 40 sen version on the right corner,  is part of a 6 stamp set dedicated to flowers issued on 31DEC2007.

- The Green Imperial Pigeon (Ducula aenea) occurs in large parts of Asia,  "from Nepal, southern India and Sri Lanka eastwards to southern China, Indonesia and the Philippines"  as mentioned in Wikipedia. 

A member of the Columbidae family, this forest dweller is the subject of the beautiful 5 Ringgit stamp issued on 14MAY2005, part of an eight definitive stamp set themed on "Birds".

- It is believed that shadow play, a form of theatre that uses back lit puppets whose shadows are projected on a translucent screen, originated in China or India, somewhere in the 1st millennium BC. From then on it grew to be a much cherish tradition in various parts of the world, but especially in and around southeast Asia.

Malaysia, where shadow play is known as Wayang Kulit has this tradition deeply enrooted and one of its contemporary masters, both as performer and trainer of other performers, was Hamzah Awang Amat.

The Shadow Play Master, (1940-2001), was one of the Malaysian Art Laureates honoured on a three stamp set (50 and 60 sen; 130 Ringgit) stamp issued on  26SEP2023. 

The postmark indicates that the envelope was mailed from the city of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian State of Sabah, in the island of Borneo.