Clown Care – best way to treat patients

 

Date of Issue : 27 June 2011

Hi ! Israel Post issued a wonderful stamp featuring Clown Care on 27 June 2011. Clown care is a way of treating patients by humor, games and clowning as well as giving them required medicines in order to cheer patients' spirits and enable them to get well soon. It is the best way to treat patients and make them to smile and forget their illness ….it would be really nice if it is used in every child’s hospital. This is all for today…Till Next Post..Have a Nice Time !

Clown care..

The image of a clown entertaining a sick child in hospital that appears on this stamp has become the symbol of clown care in Israel and around the world.

In the 1970's Dr. Patch Adams, considered to be the founder of clown care, was determined to change doctors' patronizing attitude toward their patients and to get them to see those patients as people, not just as cases. Patch Adams claimed that combined treatment of both the body and the spirit is the best way to defeat disease. He utilized a lot of humor, games and clowning in order to improve patients' spirits. The highly successful 1998 film 'Patch Adams', starring Robin Williams, portrayed his work.

A number of years after Patch Adams began his mission, real clowns from the Big Apple Circus began visiting children's wards in New York hospitals. Adams' message spread quickly and today medical clowns operate in most countries around the world, working in conjunction with medical teams.

Clown care came to Israel in 2000, with Shlomi Algosi considered to be the first Israeli medical clown.

New Philatelic Issues from Israel Post, June 2011

Improving Tomatoes through Breeding

 

Butterfly Booklet from Israel Post

Israel Post has recently issued a beautiful stamp  booklet  of butterfly stamps.

Special Covers

Bihar

Ashok Stambh ( Vasishali)- Wheeler Senate Hall Patna

BIPEX 82 – 8.2. 1982

: Ashwani Dubey - Gorakhpur 

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New Stamps from Sri Lanka…

 

 

 

Date of Issue : 15 May 2011

Sri Lanka Post issued a set of four stamps and MS on 15 May 2011 to commemorate famous Vesak festival commonly known as Buddha’s Birthday.

Vesak

Vesak is an annual public holiday observed traditionally by practicing Buddhists in South Asian and South East Asian countries like Nepal, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia, Pakistan and India. Sometimes informally called “Buddha’s birthday,” it actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment Nirvana, and passing (Parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha.

In Sri Lanka the Vesak Festival is celebrated as a religious and a cultural festival in Sri Lanka on the full moon of the month of May, for two days.

During these two days, the selling of alcohol and flesh is prohibited by government decree. As a symbolic act of liberation, birds, insects and animals are released in huge numbers.

Celebrations include various religious and alms giving activities. Electrically lit pandols called toranas are erected in various locations in Colombo and elsewhere, most sponsored by donors, religious societies and welfare groups. Each pandol illustrates a story from the 550 Jataka Katha or the 550 Past Life Stories of the Buddha.

In addition, colourful lanterns called Vesak koodu are hung along streets and in front of homes. They signify the light of the Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha. Many devout Buddhists wear simple white dresses on Vesak Day and spend the whole day in temples with renewed determination to observe the observance of the Eight Precepts of Buddhism.

Vesak celebration also means making special efforts to bring happiness to the people in more straightened circumstances. Food stalls set up by Buddhist devotees called dansälas provide free food and drinks to passersby. Groups of people from various community organisations, businesses and government departments sing bhakti geet or Buddhist devotional songs. Colombo experiences a massive influx of public from all parts of the country during this week.

Bridges and Culverts of Sri Lanka

 

Date of Issue : 27 May 2011

Image Source : Pradip Jain, Patna

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Festivals of India - Buddha Purnima

 

 

Greetings on Buddha Jayanti

The festival of Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti celebrates the birth of Gautam Buddha in 563 BC. The most important of all the Buddhist festivals, Buddha Purnima is considered the most auspicious of all the days in the year. Although there are minor regional variations in the way Buddha Purnima is observed, the festival is generally observed by lighting oil lamps before the image of the Buddha, by reciting prayers or reading from the scriptures. Meditation and offerings of flowers, silk scarves, incense and fruit are also part of the worship rituals.Sarnath (Uttar Pradesh) and Bodhgaya (Bihar) are, in particular, known for the Buddha Purnima celebrations which are held in these two cities.

Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti is known as Visakhapuja in Thailand, Makha Bousa Festival in Laos and Vesak in Sri Lanka. Here are some exhibt pages from our distinguished reader Dr Eli Moallem of Israel that feature stamps on Great Buddha Festival from Thailand, Laos and Sri Lanka.

Visakha Puja - Thailand

Makha Bousa Festival - Laos

Vesak – Sri Lanka

Vesak Day - Philippinies

Permanent Pictorial Cancellations

Gujarat

Chamrdharini, Vadodara

Sasangir

: Vijay Modi – Himmat Nagar, Gujarat e mail : vijay_idom@rediffmail.com

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Buddhist Religion Day (Visakhapuja Day)

 

 Date of Issue : 17 May 2011

Thailand Post will issue a postage stamp and a souvenir sheet to commemorate Vishakhapuja Day on 17 May . It is a very important festival of Buddhists and also celebrated in India as Buddha Purnima. The design of the stamp is based on traditional Thai-style mural paintings .

Vishakha Puja Day

Visakha Puja day goes on to celebrate three important incidents in the life of Lord Buddha on the same day that is the full moon day of the sixth lunar month. The three events are as follows:

The Buddha's birth -This is important as he was born into the royal family and was later named as Siddhartha.
The Enlightenment of Buddha
The Nibbana- This is actually meant to commemorate the death of the Lord Buddha.

Visakha Puja Day is recognized as most important memorial day in Buddhism for the Lord Buddha who wandered from place to place teaching his discoveries to people who are accessible to the instruction, helping large a number of people achieving various levels of spiritual attainment. He sent his followers to spread Buddhism in capitals, cities and upcountry, until Buddhism was firmly established and widely spread. Visakha Puja day is also recognized by the UNESCO in 1999 as "World Heritage Day". Thailand where is the permanent location of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, is chosen to host celebrating event for the day.

Every year when this important day comes around again, all Buddhists throughout the world gather together to perform the worship to recollect the wisdom, purity and compassion of the Buddha.

Winning the Devil, Winning All in the World ( Stamp Design)

These are traditional Thai-style mural paintings created during the reign of King Rama I, which have become well-known as artistic masterpieces. The paintings are taken from mural paintings--"Subduing the Mara" on the walls of the ordination hall of Khongkharam Temple in Potharam District, Ratburi Province. The background of the paintings is deep red colour and the whole background is strewn with fallen flowers. Mother Earth, wringing her locks, is moving with grace. An image of the Lord Buddha, covered with gold leaf, depicted in the posture of Subduing the Mara, is clad in red robes. Phraya Waswadee Mara is seated on the green elephant's back and his entourage consists of demons riding on mythical lions and horses. These paintings are representation of the anecdote about the Floods overcoming the troops of the Mara. Among these troops, there a number of figures depicting Dutch and French soldiers wearing leather helmets.

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