COVER N. 366 - THAILAND

Postmark: Thailand 2023 World Stamp Champioship  140th Thailand Post  30.11.10.2023

Posted on the 30th November; received on the 6th December 2023

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Some covers can be plebeian, some covers royal, BUT none as royal as the one Ravindra sent me from Thailand with no less than eight stamps illustrated with the members of the  Thai Royal Family....

Thanks a lot Ravidra, I appreciated it, even if I'm a diehard republican.  😀

King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua, King Vajiralongkorn, or Rama X was born on the 28th July 1952, and he accepted the throne of Thailand on the 1st December 2016, after a period of mourning for his father's death, which occurred on the 13th October of the same year. Although his coronation ceremonies were held much later, between 4 and 6 May, 2019,  the Thai government ruled that his reign had started on the day of his father's death.

King Rama X,  according to Wikipedia, is also the wealthiest Royal in the world and I do remember him being every now and then in the news for not the best of reasons, regarding his family life...

Monarchies...I confess to finding them awkward in our times. The right to rule, even if in an emblematic way, just because of a name, a lineage... on what grounds? 

The first period of article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights" . can someone outside of the lineage of any monarchy in the world run for the throne? Or is the right to be royal, a....right apart? 

Stamps:

Marking the occasion of  King Rama X's 69th anniversary, the 28th July 2021, Thai Post issued a two stamp set, which can be seen on this cover occupying positions 1 and 7, clockwise from the upper left corner of the envelope. 

The 10 baht stamp shows King Rama X on the second day of his coronation on a golden palanquin on which he was carried on a procession through Bangkok’s historic heart.

The 5 baht stamp shows the Royal family at the time of the coronation: Rama X, Queen Suthida and  two daughters and a son from the King's previous marriages.

The 10 baht stamps in positions 2 and 3 were issued on the birthday of King Rama X in 2015 and 2017 respectively;

Position 4 is occupied by a 3 baht stamp with a photo of the King Rama X's grandmother, Princess Srinagarindra (1900-1995), issued on the day of the 120th anniversary of her birth, 21st December 2020;

Position 5 holds a 9 baht stamp with a photo of Quen Sirikit (1932 - ), mother of King Rama X, celebrating her  87th birthday, issued on 30AUG2019;

Position 6 is also occupied by a 9 baht stamp celebrating Qeeen Sirikit's birthday, this time her 86th. Issued on 31AUG2018;

Finally, in position 8 there is a 10 baht stamp issued on 04MAY2019, on the occasion of the crowning of King Vajiralongkorn as King Rama X.

The stamp is illustrtaed with a portrait of the king with the Royal Thai Palace on the background.

The postmark if rather blotched, but  a clearer one on the back of the cover, allows me to perceive that it was issued on the occasion of  the Thailand World Stamp Championship, which took place in Bangkok from the 27th November to the 2nd December 2023. 

POSTCARD N.126 - THAILAND

Postcard sent on the 28th September; received on the 6th December 2023

Postcard image: Chiang Rai Province, Thailand: Upper left: The northernmost point; Upper right: Opium field; Lower left and right: Akha Hilltribe
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Another year is rapidly coming to its close and, sadly, I will not be able to finish posting my stock of 2023 postcards and covers send by friendly people all across the globe until the last page of the calendar is turned.

On the other hand I am happy that this is the case since this can also be seen as a measure of how busy my friend Mr. Postman has been dropping mail into my letterbox.

I've started this blog during the COVID pandemic, when things were much slower. Now that luckily we are back to normal, getting multiple covers and postcards on the letterbox is not that infrequent and my ability to post them all here without a rather large delay is simply non-existent. The thing got worse with my being off in the Camino de Santiago, since I could not recover the time I spent without posting during my very uplifting journey.

Anyway, today I have another great postcard to post, thanks to the courtesy and generosity of Ravindra.

Chiang Rai is Thailand’s northernmost province out of the twenty six into which the country is administratively divided with a population that includes several different ethnic groups, of which the more representative are the Akha.

Also the region is known to be traditionally linked to the production and trading of opium, although efforts have been made to replace this production with other cultures, like bananas, coffee, pineapple or coconuts.

This is what, in a nutshell, Ravindra's nice postcard clearly illustrates.

In it, clockwise from the left upper corner, we can see pictures of:

-  Amphoe Mae Sai, the northernmost point of Thailand, right on the border with Myanmar (probably with Burma, at the time the photo was taken, judging from the flag that is seen flying in the foreground).

- A field of Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy. Thanks to it millions of people have benefited from its pain killing properties through the administration of morphine extracted from its latex, while millions other have had their lives turned to absolute shit, for using the same latex in one of its natural or synthesised forms: opium, morphine or heroine.

- Members of the Akha hill tribe, in their traditional costumes, this being the most numerous of the several hill tribes that inhabit the region, also known for having none less than seven natural parks. 

Open on the four sides, but supporting an elaborate roof to provide shelter and shade to those meeting under it, the Sala, the traditional Thai Pavillion, was declared by the Thai government to be a national symbol of the country, on par with the elephant and the Golden shower flower, in 2001.

This distinctive landmark is also the main subject of a series of definitive stamps which began to circulate in 2017, with several yearly runs from then on, and of which two examples (10 and 30 baht) were used on this postcard.

Unfortunately, the celebratory postmark of the 140th anniversary of the Thai Postal Services is rather splodgy, 

COVER N.45 - Thailand

Postmark: No postmark
Posted on the 23rd September; received on the 14th October
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Another uncancelled cover, which is a pity on the one side, because nice covers should have postmarks, but, on the other hand, allows the stamps to be appreciated in their full glory: And no less than 4 beautiful stamps were used on this cover that will allow me to add another entry to my country roster: Thailand. Thank you so much Chakorn.

It is the second cover I receive in one of those beautiful classic red white and blue bordered envelopes which is something that we don't see anymore in my home country, at least, but which were the norm for airmail before the advent of letters through electrons.... I remember using them to write to my pen pals and also to my father when he was living in the Azores and I was studying and working in the mainland... time flies... and so do covers...

Stamps, left to right:

Bhumibol Adulyadej ruled Thailand for 70 years, between 1946 and his passing in 2016. According to wikipedia he was the second longest reigning monarch in history, only surpassed by le Roy Soleil, Louis XIV. He was loved by his people even though during his long reign Thailand was often ruled as a military dictatorship, with about 20 coups d'état having occurred ever since the beginning of the constitutional monarchy in 1932.

On the occasion of his cremation, that took place on the 26th October 2017, Thai Post issued, on the 25th, a stamp set in minisheet from with 9 painted portraits of His Majesty the King Rama IX (as he was also known), probably based on photographs of the monarch. The nine stamps all have the same face value of 9 Baht. The two stamps on my cover are  the left and centre items of the first row of the minisheet.

The 5 Baht black and white stamp was issued on 01AUG2008 as part of a 5 stamp set celebrating the 125th Anniversary of Thai Postal Services. As far as could investigate the stamp therein depicted is the 1 Att carmine stamp with the effigy of  King Chulalongkorn, part of the first set of stamps (6 values) issued by the Kingdom of Siam (as Thailand was then called) on 04AUG1883. There's also the image of a building on the stamp, which I unfortunately was not able to identify. Help, anyone?

The last 5 Baht stamp was part of a 4 stamp set (2,3,4 and 5 Baht), issued on 02 APR1991, dedicated  to Hanging Decorations, commemorative of the 1991 Heritage Conservation Day. The stamps were also issued in minisheet form, each containg the four different items.