Issued by Nepal

Issued on 13 Paush 2036 corresponding to 28^th Dec 1979

Designer : K. Karmacharya

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Denomination :
(a) 25 Paisa
(b) Rs. 2.30

Colour : 4 colour

Size : 26 x 36 mm

Perforation : 14 x 14

Format :
(a) Vertical
(b) Horizontal

Paper : Unwatermarked gummed paper

Quantity :
(a) 3,000,000
(b) 1,000,000

Sheet : 100

Process : offset

Printer : Bruder Rosenbaum Printers, Vienna, Austria

Name : Birendra Bir Bikram Shah

Born on Dec 28, 1945 at Kathmandu, Nepal

Died on Jun 1, 2001 at Kathmandu, Nepal

About : 

• For a small and developing country like Nepal, nothing is more natural than a deep-rooted aspiration for peace and development. – H. M. King Birendra
• My own country Nepal is endowed with river systems which, if thoughtfully exploited, can help not only our own country but also the countries of our region. – H. M. King Birendra

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Issued by India

Issued on Dec 21, 1979

Issued for : The Posts & Telegraphs Department feels privileged to issue a commemorative stamp to mark the occasion of the 500^th birth anniversary of Guru Amar Das.

Description of Design : The design of the stamp shows Gurdwara Baoli Sahib, Goindwal, Amritsar District.

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Multicolour

Denomination : 30 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 X 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 X 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 X 13

Watermark : Printed on coated adhesive stamp paper

Number printed : 50,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing process : Photogravure

Designed and printed at : India Security Press

Name : Amar Das

Born on May 5, 1479 at Basarke village, Amritsar district, Punjab, India

Died on Sep 1, 1574 at Goindval, Punjab, India

About : 

• From the One Lord
  Have come forth all different forms, shapes and hues.
  — Guru Amar Das, the Guru Granth Sahib, p. 160
• 1979 marks the quincentenary of the birth of Guru Amar Das, a spiritual teacher with a rare mystical insight and wide human sympathy. He was one of the Ten Gurus or prophet-teachers of the Sikh faith. Third in line from Guru Nanak, the founder, he carried his teaching of universal love and equality of mankind to the far corners of India. He lived a simple and holy life. In personal humility and seva, deeds of self-giving love and service, he set standards scarcely equalled. He was a superb poet and wrote chaste Punjabi verse of deep spiritual intuition and of moral and humanitarian import. His bani, 907 sublime hymns, is still preserved in the Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred scripture of the Sikhs.
• Guru Amar Das inherited the light from Guru Angad, the Second Guru of the Sikh faith. He was his senior in age by 25 years, yet he proved to be a true disciple. He was born on May 5, 1479, at the village of Basarke, near Amritsar, and was the eldest of the four sons of Baba Tej Bhan. He shared the family’s religious zeal and year after year made pilgrimage to Hardwar to bathe in the sacred waters. This he did without fail until as he was once returning from his holy duty, he was reproached by a sadhu for not owning a Guru. Without a Guru or enlightener all his exertions, he was told, must remain abortive. Since that day Amar Das had been in search of a teacher.
• One day he happened to listen to the bani of Guru Nanak being recited. He felt enchanted and desired to see the Guru who sat in Guru Nanak‘s place. As he was escorted to Guru Angad‘s presence, he at once knew that he had found what he had been in search of. For him this was the beginning of a new life. He was old, yet he took to the teaching of the Guru with vigorous zeal. He performed his daily devotions and derived special joy from rendering service to the Guru. He brought water from the river every morning for his bath. He served food in the Guru-ka-Langar or community refectory and fetched firewood from the forest. His life was an example of humility and devotion. Guru Angad acknowledged the perfection he had achieved by proclaiming him the future Guru.
• Guru Amar Das entered upon the office of Guru on Guru Angad‘s passing away in 1552. To spread the message on Guru Nanak, he created a well-knit ecclesiastical system and set up 22 manjis, dioceses or preaching-districts, covering different parts of India. He appointed the first days of the months of Baisakh and Magh as well as Divali for the followers to gather at Goindwal which was his permanent seat of residence. Here at Goindwal he had a baoli, a well with 84 steps, dug and this became an important point of pilgrim interest. Guru Amar Das laid down simple ceremonies and rites for birth, marriage and death. He gave special attention to the amelioration of the position of women. The removal of the disadvantages to which they had been subject became an urgent concern. He assigned to women the responsibility of supervising the communities of disciples in certain sectors. The customs of purdah and sati were discouraged. The Guru-ka-Langar where all sat together to eat irrespective of the differences of caste and of high and low, gained still further renown in Guru Amar Das‘s time. The Guru expected every visitor to partake of food in it before seeing him. By this he meant to minimize the distinctions between man and man. Emperor Akbar, who once visited him at Goindwal, willingly ate out of the common kitchen. The food in the langar was usually of a rich Punjabi variety. Guru Amar Das himself, however, lived on coarse bread earned by the labour of his hands.
• The bani, the Guru‘s revealed word, continued to be the precious endowment. Guru Amar Das himself composed verse of vivid spiritual insight. He also collected the compositions of his predecessors and of some of the Bhaktas of that time. When he compiled these into two volumes – both preserved in the descendant family to this day – an important step towards the codification of the Sikh canon had been taken.
• Guru Amar Das now desired to name a successor. None was worthier of the holy responsibility than Bhai Jetha, one of the Guru‘s devoted disciples. He made several tests and each time his confidence in Bhai Jetha was enhanced. He was convinced that of all of his disciples, Bhai Jetha had mastered the teaching of Guru Nanak most worthily. He judged him suitable for the position of Guru and consecrated him as such by his own hand. Jetha, as Guru Ram Das became the Fourth Guru of the Sikhs. As the bards sang, “He was Nanak, He was Lahna (Angad), He was Amar Das himself”. So was he acknowledged after Guru Amar Das who blended his light with Light Eternal on 1 September 1574.

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Issued by Nepal

Issued on Dec 16, 1979

Issued by :
His Majesty’s Government
Postal Services Department
Nepal Philatelic Bureau
Kathmandu

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Denomination : 5 Paisa (2), 15 Paisa (2) and 1 Rupee (2)

Colour : Single colour

About : 

• Lichchhavi Coin – The copper coin issued in the fifth century A.D. By Mandev, the first king of Lichchhavi dynasty has been regarded as the oldest coin of Nepal. On the obverse of the coin the legend “Sri Mananka” along with the image of lion and on the reverse “Sri Bhogini” and the goddess seated on lotus have been engraved.
• Malla Coin – The coin brought out by King Mahendra Malla in the sixteenth century A.D. Is considered as the oldest silver coin of the Kathmandu valley. The legend “Sri Mat Kashthamandapasyadhipati” on one side and “Sri Sri Jaya Mahendra Malla Devasya” on the other have been depicted.
• Shah Coin – The silver double mohar of H. M. King Prithvi Narayan Singh, the great is the famous coin among the coins of the Shah dynasty. On the obverse of this coin “Sri Sri Prithvi Narayan Shah Dev” and on the reverse “Sri Sri Sri Gorakhnath” along with “Sri Sri Bhavani” have been inscribed and the year 1693 in Shaka Sambat is also inserted on it.

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Issued by India

Issued on Dec 10, 1979

Issued for : Indian Posts & Telegraphs Department feels privileged to commemorate the flying and gliding movement in India by issuing a special postage stamp.

Description of Design : The stamp depicts “Hindusthan Pushpak” aircraft and “Rohini-1” glider.

Designed by : R. N. Pasricha

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Multicolour

Denomination : 30 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 X 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 X 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 X 13

Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked adhesive stamp paper

Number printed : 30,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing process : Photogravure

Printed at : India Security Press

About : 

• Since time immemorial, man has looked up with envy at the birds in free flight and aspired to soar with them high into the serene blue sky. Today man has not only learnt to fly but has crossed the frontiers of space and walked on the moon. As the awesome expanse of a new universe opens before us and the impossible melts into the possible, the arduous and patient efforts of the early pioneers to translate aspiration into achievement glow from the pages of the history of mankind.
• In this saga of human endeavour, ballooning preceded gliding and flying came even later. The history of gliding is replete with achievements of men from different countries. The British pioneers Cayley, Henson and Stringfellow made theoretical investigations and model flight experiments and were followed by early exponents of gliding. The names of Otto and Gustav Liliental, the Le Bris, Langley, Chanute, Wilbur and Orville Wright blaze in the firmament of gliding history. In India, the pioneers were Appasaheb B. Pant and a group of young men who set up a Gliding Club in 1928 at Aundh in Maharashtra, built their own gliders based on designs from abroad and achieved a number of successful flights. Their efforts gave birth to the Indian Gliding Association in 1929. A further boost to gliding in this country was given by Fardun H. Irani who in 1938 was the first Indian to qualify for the International Silver ‘C’. From the first gliding centre near Pune in Maharashtra in 1929, gliding activities have now come to range over sixteen centres and clubs all over the country. Today advanced gliders of Indian design and material, designed and developed by the Research & Development Wing of the Indian Civil Aviation Department, are indigenously manufactured to meet the requirements of the civil gliding clubs and the Air Wing of the National Cadet Corps.
• The Wright Brothers created history when they made the powered flight on 17^th December 1903. In India, at an exhibition held at Allahabad in February 1911, the greatest attraction was the joy rides given by a French aviator, Henri Piquet in a Humber biplane. By 1928, the days of intrepid pilots like the Wright Brothers, Bleriot, Farman, Curtiss and others flying weird looking contraptions of wood, wire, bicycle wheels and canvas into the blue yonder were over. But in India, the interest in flying gathered momentum with the establishment of the Aero Club of India in 1928. Its pioneering efforts laid the foundations of civil and sports aviation in our country. Today it is the apex organisation and the national authority for promotion of general aviation and aero-sports in the country.
• Among the Indian pioneers, J.R.D. Tata was the first person to receive the Aviator’s Certificate from the Aero Club of India and Burma in February 1929. In 1930, the Aga Khan Prize of £500 to the first Indian who would fly solo between India and England in either direction in not more than 30 days was won by 17-year old Aspy Engineer, who thirty years later rose to command the Indian Air Force.
• During the past five decades, the flying clubs, which now number about 25 in the country, have rendered yeoman service, from providing primary training ground for commercial as well as Air Force pilots to carrying mail. Delhi Flying Club had the distinction of operating an exclusive airmail service between Delhi and Karachi, in the early 1930s. Today the flying clubs and gliding centres are engaged in promotion of not only flying and gliding but also the other thrilling and adventurous aerosports of ballooning, parachuting, etc.

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Issued by Pakistan

Issued on Dec 10, 1979

Issued for : To commemorate one hundred years of Customs Services Pakistan Post Office is issuing a postage stamp of Re. 1/- denomination on 10-12-1979.

Designer : Adil Salahuddin

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Denomination : Re. 1/-

Colours : Red, Blue, Yellow and Black

Size of Stamp : 38.34 x 28.50 m.m.

Size of Print : 35.34 x 25.50 m.m.

Perforation Gauge : 13 x 13½ C

Quantity : 1000,000

Number of Stamps in One sheet : 96 (Ninety six)

Process of Printing : Litho Offset

Printers : Pakistan Security Printing Corporation, Karachi

About : 

• 1978 marked the completion of a hundred years of service by the Customs Department as guardians of the economic and fiscal frontiers of the areas which now constitute Pakistan. Although the concept of Customs dawned with the era when man learnt the secret of international trade, the history of Customs in the sub-continent can be traced to the Mirs of Sind and the subsequent British Administration. The year 1878 marked a focal point in Customs administration, for it was in this year that various laws were consolidated in the Sea Customs Act, 1878. At the times, Customs revenue collection was mere 3 lac rupees, a figure which is dwarfed by the collection of about rupees 1200 crore this year, constituting over 60% of the federal revenue budget.
• Independence necessitated a new set of priorities and requisites which led to the repeal of the Sea Customs Act of 1878 and to the birth of the Customs Act of 1969. The Customs Department, apart from collection of duties on import and export, facilitates international passenger traffic into and out of Pakistan, contributes to industrial production and export promotion through incentives. Its watchward is “efficiency, courtesy and integrity”.
• Today, as may be seen from the map, there are over 24 Customs Establishments all over the country, protecting the nation’s economic and fiscal frontiers from the beaches of Gwadar and Karachi, to the plains of Lahore and the rugged mountains of the Khyber.
• Issued by: The Director General, Pakistan Post Office, Karachi.

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Issued by India

Issued on Dec 4, 1979

Issued for : Indian Posts & Telegraphs Department feels honoured to issue a special stamp to commemorate the 23^rd General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency being held in New Delhi.

Description of Design : The stamp depicts the symbol of the International Atomic Energy Agency alongwith the symbolic representation of peace dove.

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Multicolour

Denomination : 100 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 X 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 X 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 X 13

Watermark : Printed on unwater–marked adhesive stamp paper

Number printed : 20,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing process : Photogravure

Designed and printed at : India Security Press

About : 

• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came into being on 29 July 1957. Its headquarters is located in the Austrian capital of Vienna. The membership has grown from 57 Member-States in 1957 to a present total of 110, of which 79 are developing countries. Although autonomous, IAEA is a member of the United Nations System and sends reports of its work to the General Assembly and other United Nations Organs. Its Secretariat, which is headed by a Director General, consists of about 1500 international civil servants recruited from over 60 Member-States.
• The main objective of IAEA, as defined in its Statute, is to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world and to ensure that the assistance provided by it is not used to further any military purpose.
• The executive organ of the Agency is the Board of Governors comprising representatives of 34 Member-States, 12 of whom are designated by the Board and 22 elected by the General Conference. Since the inception of the Agency, India has been a member of the Board of Governors as one of the nine countries most advanced in the technology of atomic energy. India’s active participation in the Agency’s activities reflects the recognition of its important role in promoting peaceful utilisation of atomic energy.
• The General Conference of IAEA with participation of all the 110 Member-States was convened in regular annual sessions for a general debate on its policies and programmes. The General Conference considered the budget and annual report of the Agency, approved applications for membership, elected new members to the Board of Governors in replacement of those whose terms have expired. The IAEA General Conference had been held away from IAEA headquarters in Vienna only on rare occasions. The holding of the General Conference in India represented the fourth occasion on which it had been held outside Vienna.

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Issued by Nepal

Issued on Nov 22, 1979

Issued by :
His Majesty’s Government
Postal Services Department
Nepal Philatelic Bureau
Kathmandu

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Denomination :
(a) 10 Paisa,
(b) Rs. 3.50
(c) Rs. 10

Colour : Multi colour

About : 

• In the context of first international world pheasant association symposium Postal Services Department is issuing a set of three special postage stamps depicting birds – symbol of beauty and attraction.
• Gray Shrike (Lanius excubitor):– Looking captivating by its very appearance Gray Shrike is rarely seen in winter specially in the Bankey district and adjoining places. It is also a tradition that the head of this uncommon bird is used as an auspicious item for the occasion of Annaprasan (grain feeding ceremony).
• Danphe (Lophophorus impejanus):– Found in the Himalayan region Danphe – our national bird lives at an altitude between 2600 m and 4600 m. in the pleasant wild bushes. This bird is famous by the name of nine coloured Danphe because of its multicoloured beauty and fascination and it is the greatest decoration of our nation – a paradise of natural sanctuaries.
• Fire-tailed Sun bird (Aethopyga ignicauda):– Fire-tailed Sun bird, looking exquisite among the multicoloured birds and occurring at an altitude ranging from 600 m. to 4000 m. is found at Godavari and Sudarijal of Kathmandu, Baglung and some other hilly regions. This bird lives at the deep thickets of rhododendrons in summer.

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Issued by Israel

Issued on 13 Nov, 1979

Designer : Miri Siegler–Eliya was born in 1955 in Tel Aviv. As part of her high school education, she studied sculpture at the Avni Institute in Yafo.

Her work has been shown at amateur exhibitions at ZOA House in Tel Aviv.

She is currently completing her studies at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem.

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 8.50 Pound

About : 

• The importance of the “International Year of the Child” lies in the certainty that children constitute the future. No investment is more crucial for humanity. The keynote of the Resolution passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations, declaring 1979 the “International Year of the Child” is to focus attention on children’s needs.
• The objective is to achieve higher priorities for policy and action on their behalf and a higher level of investment, particularly for the most disadvantaged. By providing a framework for advocacy, it is hoped that the process of integrating programmes for children in comprehensive economic and social development policies will be accelerated.
• The 1959 U.N. Declaration on the Rights of the Child is the basis for re-examining legislation and improving implementation. In accordance with the recommendations issued by IYC Headquarters in New York and Geneva (UNICEF is the Agency), Israel established a National Commission, under the Patronage of Mrs. Ofira Navon, wife of the President of the State. All government ministries and public organisations providing services for children are members, as well as many non-governmental organisations, whose voluntary efforts have established a network of institutions and projects for Children.
• Israel is a child-oriented society, in the spirit of Jewish tradition, which venerates the family, giving central attention to children and their welfare. This has expressed itself in legislation, providing for children’s basic rights and needs – education, health, and comprehensive welfare services. Innovative programmes have been introduced to meet the special and exceptional circumstances with which the country has had to cope.
• Both prior to and following Independence in 1948, thousands of children, victims of the War and the Nazi Holocaust, whose parents had disappeared, were rescued and rehabilitated. Subsequently, educational frameworks were provided for the children, deriving from some hundred different ethnic groups, when they flocked to their new homeland from countries in which their position had become untenable. Representing different levels of culture and standards, in terms of modern civilization, their absorption presented many challenges. Each succeeding government has recognised the primacy of children’s needs and acted accordingly.
• The necessary services are available to ensure the well-being of children, but there is a constant need to strive for better delivery and quality. There is still discrimination in favour of the most deprived children and those with handicaps. When the former can be dealt with at the same level with equality of opportunity assured, the bridging of social, educational and cultural gaps will have been achieved.
• Whilst the central objective is to ensure improvement and better policies for children, particularly in countries where the poorest and most disadvantaged are concentrated, IYC is also doing everything possible of joy and fun of childhood for the children themselves.
• There are many competitions and events for children, national and international. Communication between children in different parts of the world is achieved in many ways as children themselves recognize their affinity to one another. The learning process leading to increased understanding, knowledge and tolerance has received particular impetus.
• The more industrialized and the less advanced countries of the world have come to realize that they all have to cope with children’s problems due to poverty, neglect and handicaps, even though the circumstances differ. Israel joins together with all countries who believe that “mankind owes the child the best it has to give”, and are determined to ensure that the new generation will be healthy and happy, well prepared to meet the challenges of life.
• This stamp, honouring IYC, shows a typical Israeli with his “kova tembel”, sitting astride a rainbow with hope, with humour, aspiring upwards, free and happy. May all the stamps issued in the world for IYC become the symbol of the universal hope that children will know only the joys of childhood and neither hunger, war nor poverty.

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Issued by Israel

Issued on 13 Nov, 1979

Designer : The stamps were designed by Z. Narkiss, Tel Aviv

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Pale Yellow & Dark Olive

Denomination : 13 Pound

Name : Aaron Aaronsohn

Born on 21 May, 1876 at Bacău, Romania

Died on 15 May, 1919 at English Channel

About : 

• AARON AARONSOHN was born in 1876 in Rumania and immigrated in 1882 to Eretz–Israel with his parents, who were among the founders of Zikhron–Ya’aqov, where Beit Aaronsohn stands housing a botanical museum and library, and the family home.
• Aaronsohn studied agriculture in France and became an instructor and adviser on agricultural and technical matters. In 1906 he discovered the Emmer Wheat (“Triticum dicoccoides”) in the Galilee. This discovery, as well as other scientific papers published in a number of botanical monthlies, brought Aaronsohn world-wide renown. In 1910 he travelled to the United States where he came in touch with some influential Jews who helped him establish an agricultural experimental station at Athlit, on the coast south of Haifa. The outbreak of the first world war made a deep impact on the life of Aaron Aaronsohn. As an international figure he was a member of a committee which allocated funds sent from the U.S.A. to the Jews of Palestine. His contacts with the Turkish authorities convinced him that under this cruel and corrupt regime the Zionist cause would not flourish. He therefore organized an underground intelligence service known as “Nili”, which was based at the Athlit station, where British ships would come surreptitiously to collect messages.
• The Nili group was composed of Aaronsohn’s friends and family, and included his brother Alexander and his sister Sarah. Sarah was arrested in 1917 and after being tortured by the Turks for three days shot herself without revealing any of the Nili secrets.
• Aaron Aaronsohn continued to be active on the world Jewish scene and was highly thought of by Dr. H. Weizmann who, in 1918, included him in the Zionist Council of Palestine. He acted as expert to the Zionist delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference in the question of the boundaries for the British Mandate. Flying on this mission from London to Paris on 15 May 1919 his plane crashed in the British Channel and he was reported missing.
• Sylvia Mann

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Issued by Israel

Issued on 13 Nov, 1979

Designer : The stamps were designed by Z. Narkiss, Tel Aviv

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Pale Green & Prussian Blue

Denomination : 9 Pound

Name : Joseph Vladimirovich Trumpeldor

Born on 21 Nov, 1880 at Pyatigorsk, Russian Empire [now in Russia]

Died on 1 Mar, 1920 at Tel Hai, Occupied Enemy Territory Administration [now in Israel]

About : 

• JOSEPH TRUMPELDOR has become a national symbol of bravery and self-sacrifice. The son of a soldier in the Czarist army, he was born in the Northern Caucasus in 1880, and, as a youngster, became attracted to the Tolstoyan idea of communal living. He soon turned his Zionist-oriented thoughts to the establishment of such communes in the Land of Israel.
• Drafted into the army during the Russo-Japanese war, Trumpeldor volunteered for special assignments, losing his left arm during the fighting around Port Arthur in 1904-5. A prisoner of war from 1904 to 1906, he then returned to Russia, studied law and immigrated to Palestine in 1912. As the outbreak of World War I he was deported to Egypt, where he organized the Zion Mule Corps as the forerunner of a Jewish fighting unit. Leading the Zion Mule Corps, Trumpeldor fought for the British at Gallipoli, was demobilised in London and helped Jabotinsky found the Jewish Legion. The year 1917 saw him back in Russia training young Jews in the framework of the He-Halutz movement in preparation for their immigration. Trumpeldor himself came home to Palestine two years later and was asked to organize the defence of Upper Galilee settlements against Arab violence. Trouble soon began. On March 1^st, 1920 Tel Hai was attacked and Trumpeldor fatally wounded. He and his companions who died with him are buried near Tel Hai, where a memorial erected in 1934 is inscribed with Trumpeldor’s last words: “It is good to die for our country”.
• Sylvia Mann

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