INDIA – Cover from Madurai, India to Braga, Portugal.

Cover with souvenir sheet from the ‘2^nd Africa – India Forum Summit’ stamp issue, posted on September, 4 2011.

(Special thanks to my friend K. G. Saravanan)

2nd Africa-India Forum Summit

India Post issued a set of 2 stamps to commemorate 2nd Africa-India Forum Summit. The stamps depict the African and Asian Elephants on last 25 of May 2011.

The second India-Africa summit was aimed at consolidating trade ties between the two regions, which together account for a third of the world’s population. The two sides signed a cooperation framework to further bolster the economic relations that got a boost after the first India-Africa summit in 2008 in New Delhi.

They also signed a political statement — the so-called Addis Ababa Declaration — calling for comprehensive reform of the United Nations system including an expanded UN Security Council in which the partners have pledged each other’s support for a permanent seat. Both India and China have turned to Africa to seek energy resources to power their fast-paced economies, but while China prefers government-to-government deals, Indian investment is mainly in the private sector.

Rashtrapati Bhavan

The Rashtrapati Bhavan is the official residence of the President of India,located at Raisina hill in New Delhi,India. Until 1950 it was known as “Viceroy’s House” and served as the residence of the Viceroy and Governor-General of India. It is amidst an area known as Lutyens’ Delhi. At present,it is the largest residence of any Chief of the State in the world. The construction of the building was planned for 4 years, but World War I intervened and construction required 19 years to complete.Its first occupant,Lord Irwin,began occupation on January 23, 1931.

Stamps and souvenir sheet was issued by Indian Post on 5 August 2011.

Brihadeeswara temple

First Day Cover

India post today issued a postage stamp featuring The Brihadeeswara temple of Thanjavur.

An Indian monument listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage list of historical sites and monuments.

The Brihadeeswara temple is the major center of tourist attraction at Thanjavur. This temple is one of India’s most prized architectural sites.The ‘Vimana’ – or the temple tower – is 216 ft (66 m) high and is among the tallest of its kind in the world.

Thanjavur is the ancient capital of the Chola kings. King Rajaraja Chola constructed the Brihadeeswara Temple in 10th century AD and the architect Sama Varma designed it. Thanjavur was the center of learning during 10th to 14th century AD. The Brihadeeswara temple is one of the few great Indian monuments listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage list of historical sites and monuments.

Stamp was issued by Indian Post on 27 August 2010.

Rath Yatra Puri

First Day Cover

India post issued a postage stamp featuring the Rath Yatra wihich takes place at puri (Orissa) every year. This years Rath Yatra will take place on 13 July 2010.

The biggest and the grandest of all festivals, the highlight is the sacred journey of the statues of the Lord Jagannath of Puri with brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra from main temple to Gundicha Temple, where they remain for nine days. The mammoth wooden chariots carrying the three deities pulled by thousands of devotees, present a spectacular scene. The yatra (journey) begins on the second day of the lunar month (asadha).

The Rath Yatra is also known as Car Festival. An annual festival commemorates the journey of Krishna from Gokul to Mathura.It also symbolizes a journey to light from the dark, which commences on the 2nd day of the bright fortnight in the month of Asadha (June/July).

Lakhs of devotees converge to the city to join festivities lasting for nine days. In this journey, thousands haul the three huge rathas (chariots) carrying statues of Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra, down Grand road to the Gundicha Temple–just 2 km away in Puri, Orissa.

Usually the deities – Jagannath (Krishna), Balarama and Subhadra are worshipped within the temple, but on the day of the Rath festival they are taken through the streets so that everyone can have the fortune of seeing them.

Puri Rathy Yatra–The chariot festival of Puri in Orissa, India. In the first phase of the rituals, the Chandan Yatra, the Chalanti Pratimas (moving statues) of the deities take a ceremonial ride in a boat in Narendra Tank for 21 consecutive days, after a refreshing bath in fragrant sandal wood (chandan) scented water.

This is followed by Snana Yatra, literally the festival of bath, in which the three are taken to Snana Badi, a bathing platform where the deities are ceremonially bathed with 108 pitchers of water. After which the gods are believed to convalesce inside the sanctum sanctorum and undergo treatment in which special ayurvedic medicine and some special liquid diet (sarapana) is offered to them. Closed to public view, during this period of 15 days, the pilgrims have to be satisfied with a darshan of images on the Pattachitra paintings hanged there.

Sent yesterday 11 of November 2011

Covers to friends in China (2), Denmark, Dubai, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Serbia and Taiwan.

2011-11-11 Cancellation over Fado stamp of Amália Rodrigues

MONACO – Postcard from Monte Carlo, Monaco to Braga, Portugal.

 

Official invitation postcard for the MonacoPhil 2011 posted on September, 26 2011.

Special cancellation, commemorative of the Centenary of the Club Alpin Monégasque (1911-2011) over stamp of 0,85€ of the ‘Beijing 2008 Olympic Games’ stamps issue.

Portuguese Cheeses 2nd Group

 

 

 

PORTUGUESE CHEESES

Portugal – given its continental narrowness – cannot pride itself of having good pastures, especially for larger stock… However, in the areas where the high grass is scarce, the goats and the sheep reign. The Azores is quite another story. There, on the island of São Miguel, and on the other blessed island “her ladyship the cow” is empress. That is, the true dairy cow, not the “marcolina cow” in the paradigmatic translation of “vacum cleaner” done by some, touched by the American greatness of local emigration…

Therefore, and also due to the poverty of the soil, herd tending has always been present in the Lusian lands, as a very old livelihood, quite often supplementing in a sustainable manner, avant la letter, the tilling of the soil, while the payment for the “pasture” that fed the furry or woolly cattle that returned the natural manure to the earth was negotiated between farmers and shepherds. It is quite obvious that in herd land the cheese is the king. Cheese is perhaps the oldest man made processed food. After that hunting, fishing and fruit and vegetable collecting times were bygone, and after man had learned to master the secret of fire, cheese appeared. Historic documents place its genesis in the valley between two rivers and in Egypt, around 3500 B.C. In Portugal, cheese has certainly been produced since Neolithic times. Cheese making, whichever the cheese, is an art. At least that is the case with hand-made cheese, intuitively worked by experienced hands, where knowledge is passed down from the mother to the shepherd’s daughter who attentively follows every details: the temperature of the hand, the curdling time, the turning of the cheeses and the changing of the bands, the pastures of broom or other graminaceous plants of the higher lands which greatly influence the flavour of the final product.

As a tribute to the shepherds, to their wives and to all the people who still work in the traditional Portuguese cheese-dairies, we have made this commemorative stamp issue, made up of two series, portraying all the Lusitanian cheeses with POD and geographical indication (GI), leaving the description of the cheeses to Master José Quitério.

Serra da Estrela cheese PDO

Made of pure, raw sheep’s milk, of the Bordaleira race, Serra da Estrela variety, curdled with cardoon, aged between 30 to 45 days (for the soft cheese). Cylindrical shape, about 6 cm high and 15 in diameter and weighing between 300 and 1500 g. Ivory coloured paste, soft, creamy, “blind” or with a few small holes, exquisite flavour, slightly acidulated. The legally defined area of production, which better opinions considered to be excessive, covers the municipalities of Carregal do Sal, Celorico da Beira, Fornos de Algodres, Gouveia, Mangualde, Manteigas, Nelas, Oliveira do Hospital, Penalva do Castelo and Seia, and a few administrative parishes in the municipalities of Aguiar da Beira, Arganil, Covilhã, Guarda, Tábua, Tondela, Trancoso and Viseu, in the centre-north of Portugal.

Rabaçal cheese PDO

Made from sheep’s and goat’s milk, in the ideal proportion of 75% of the first to 25% of the second, raw, curdled with animal rennet, it is aged for at least three weeks. Cylindrical shape, about 5 cm high and 12 cm in diameter, it weighs between 300 and 500 g. Whitish-unpolished paste, semi-hard, with little or no holes, it has a particular flavour. The production area is mostly concentrated in the old village of Rabaçal (Penela municipality, Coimbra district) and a few neighbouring villages. The certificate that instituted the POD includes the municipalities of Alvaiázere, Ansião, Condeixa-a-Nova, Penela, Pombal and Soure, in the centre of Portugal.

Azeitão cheese PDO

Made from the milk of the Bordaleira sheep race, sub-race Saloia (in present times from other imported races as well), raw, curdled with cardoon, three weeks normal aging time. Shaped as small cylinders – 5 cm high, 8 cm in diameter –, weighing in average between 250 to 300 g (smaller ones are now appearing on the market). Pale-yellow or whitish paste, soft, creamy, with a stronger milky taste than the Serra da Estrela cheese (from which it descends). The production area established by law stretches to the municipalities of Palmela, Sesimbra and Setúbal, in the Lisbon region.

Cabra Transmontano cheese PDO

Made from raw goat’s milk of the Serrana race, curdled with animal rennet, aged during two months at least. Cylindrical shape, 4 to 6 cm high and 12 to 15 cm in diameter, weighing between 600 and 900 g. Hard whitish “blind” paste that has the characteristic flavour of goat’s cheese and a light peppery touch. Produced in the municipalities of Âlfandega da Fé, Carrazeda de Ansiães, Freixo de Espada à Cinta, Macedo de Cavaleiros, Mirandela, Mogadouro, Torre de Moncorvo and Vila Flor (Bragança district), as well as Murça and Valpaços (Vila Real district), located in the north-east of Portugal.

São Jorge cheese PDO

Made of raw cow’s milk curdled with animal rennet. Shaped as a sort of wheel-type big cylinder between 10 to 15 cm high, its diameter varies between 25 and 35 cm and its weight between 8 to 12 kg. Hard, straw-yellow paste with many tiny irregular holes, brittle, with an individual flavour and slightly spicy touch. Minimum aging three month. The production area is that of the whole Island of São Jorge, Azores

Acknowledgments

Gabinete de Planeamento e Políticas - Direcção de Serviços das Fileiras Agro Alimentares - Ministério da Agricultura; Associação de Produtores de Queijos do Distrito de Castelo Branco (Queijo de Castelo Branco DOP); Cooperativa de Produtores de Queijos da Beira baixa Natur - al - Carnes (Queijo de Niza DOP); QUEITEQ - Cooperativa de Produtores de Leite de Ovinos da Terra Quente (Queijo Terrincho DOP); Queijaria Artesanal, de Jaime Silva Lopes, Monte da Pedra da Légua, Alcains

Technical Details

Date of Issue: 2 March 2011

Values: stamps of €0,32, €0,47, €0,68, €0,80 and €1.00 and one souvenir sheet with one stamp of €2,50

Designer: Atelier Acácio Santos / Túlio Coelho

Printer: Joh. Enschedé

Process: 4-colour offset lithography

Size: stamps 30.6 mm x 40.0 mm

Souvenir sheet 125 x 95 mm

Perforation: Cross of Christ 13 x 13

Paper: White TR CPST331 110g/m2

Watermark:

Sheet: sheets of 50 stamps

Major characters in Portugal

 

The centenary of the birth of several characters of Portuguese history and culture will be celebrated in 2011. It is a basic civic duty to recall the work that made them notable. And it is a national imperative to pursue the virtues of those who “freed themselves from the law of death through valorous work”. Thus it is the intent of this philatelic issue to evoke renowned ancestors who have distinguished themselves by dignifying and uplifting the History and Heritage of our Country. Alves Redol (1911-1969) was born in Vila Franca de Xira 100 years ago; he debuted with the novel Gaibéus (The Rice Field Workers), 1940, which marked the beginning of neorealism in Portugal, a literary movement characterized by an assumed social-political intervention and which is also present in his other 16 novels. Among these, Barranco de Cegos (The Gully of the Blind), 1962, which is considered his masterpiece, deserves highlighting; this novel was the beginning of his existential phase, during which he gave a more in-depth depiction of his characters and of their psychological evolution. His work also includes tales, short stories, plays, ethnographical studies and child-youth literature. Manuel da Fonseca (1911-1993) was also born 100 years ago in Santiago do Cacém; also linked to the neorealist aesthetic, his literary debut occurred in 1940 as well, with the novel Rosa dos Ventos (Rose of the Winds), regarded by Eduardo Lourenço, renowned Portuguese critic, philosopher and writer, as “one of the most creative collections of neorealist poems”. A remarkable storyteller Aldeia Nova (New Village), 1942, O Fogo e as Cinzas (The Fire and the Ashes), 1951, O Anjo no Trapézio (An Angel on the Trapeze), 1968 and Tempo de Solidão (Time of Solitude), 1973, his works convey the atmosphere of the land and of the people of the Alentejo region in the 30’s and 40’s, especially in his novels Cerromaior (The Biggest Hill), 1943, adapted to the cinema by Luís Filipe Rocha in 1980, and Seara de Vento (Harvest of Wind), 1958. Trindade Coelho (1861-1908) was born in Mogadouro 150 years ago and is chiefly known as the author of a book of stories Os Meus Amores (My Loves), 1891, in which he portrays the rural traditionalistic atmosphere and the popular language of his homeland, and of In Illo Tempore, 1902, a memory book of his times of bohemia at the University of Coimbra where he studied and graduated in Law, at his own expense after having failed in the first year. He was an attorney and later deputy attorney-general – which enabled him to travel to different parts of the country where he founded newspapers. He wrote books on jurisprudence and was also engaged in pedagogy, ethnography and politics. Antónia Ferreira (1811-1896), affectionately known as “Ferreirinha from Régua”, was born into a wealthy family traditionally connected to the Port Wine trade, an activity which she developed with great perseverance. She fought with great resolve against the lack of support and against the wine pest (phylloxera), searching for the most advanced ways to combat the disease. In her duties as manager of the most important agricultural holding of the Douro region she was also concerned with social aspects and created several social welfare institutions. The economic development of the Douro region is, to a large extent, owed to her entrepreneurial spirit. Eugénio dos Santos (1711-1760), architect and military engineer, was born a century earlier in Aljubarrota; he was especially known as the person responsible for the construction of the Baixa Pombalina (Pombaline Downtown) following the great earthquake of 1755 that razed Lisbon to the ground. As part of the team led by Manuel da Maia, chief engineer of the Crown, to him is owed the ample, rectangular, well-designed and modern planning of the lower part of the capital, transformed from a medieval burg into a city worthy of the “century of the lights”, with the required magnificence that is especially evident in the project created for the Praça do Comércio (Comércio Sq.). 

Credits

Selo €0,32 - Alves Redol - foto Augusto Cabrita, col. António Mota Redol; "Gaibéus" ( promenor da capa), ilustrações de Manuel Ribeiro de Paiva, Edição Popular/ Inquérito.

Selo €0,47 - Manuel de Fonseca - foto e manuscrito, Museu do Neo- Realismo

Selo €0,57 - Retrato de Trindade Coelho - lápis s/ papel, Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, Div. de Doc.  Fotográfica / IMC / Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea - Museu do Chiado; "in Illo tgempore" (promenor ilustração e texto) edição 1902, livraria Aillaud.

Selo €0,68 - Antónia Ferreira (a ferreirinha) - óleo s/ tela, Manuel António de Moura, col. Sogrape Vinhos; Socalcos de Vinha no Alto Douro, em desenho à pena aguarelado, Eufénio dos Santos / arquivo Academia Nacional de Belas Artes (ANBA).

 Selo €0,80 - Retrato de Eugénio dos Santos - foto Emanuel Santos de Almeida/Museu Arqueológico do Carmo, Praça do Comércio, Frontaria e Arco da Rua Augusta (promenor), desenho à pena aguarelado, Eugénio dos Santos/ arquivo Academia Nacional de Belas Artes (ANBA).

Acknowledgments

António Motal Redol, Academia Nacional de Belas Artes (ANBA), Divisão de Documentação Fotográfica / Instituto de Museus e Conservação, Museu do Neo-Realismo, Museu Arqueológico do Carmo, Sogrape Vinhos.

Technical Details

Date of Issue: 14 March 2011

Values: stamps of €0,32, €0,47, €0,57, €0,68 and €0,80

Designer: Folk Design / Sofia Martins

Printer: Joh. Enschedé

Process: 4-colour offset lithography

Size: stamps 40.0 mm x 30.6 mm

Perforation: Cross of Christ 13 x 13

Paper: White TR CPST331 110g/m2

Watermark:

Sheet: sheets of 50 stamps