Foreign Policy Blogs

Casual Friday: Central Asian stamps

You can collect stamps from all over the world, of course, so why not the stamps of Central Asia?  It's a great way to discover aspects of national culture.  First, there are national symbols: flags, Great Seals, and historic heroes.  There are the nation's significant crops, native animals, and national leaders. 

Another thing to note: sometimes stamps are issued for the collector's market, which is one reason why Kyrgyzstan issued Superman stamps.

Here is a  one celebration of ethnicity, and one celebration of capability, from Kazakhstan:

Architecture of the Capital of Kyrgyzstan:

and a bilingual collector's page of Kyrgyzstan's heroes:

Tajikistan sometimes features notable Islamic scholars such as Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina (known to the West since Medieval times as Avicenna).

I was surprised that Turkmenistan had so much variety:  frankly I expected all of the stamps to be Turkmenbashi stamps.

And I searched in vain for a Gulnara stamp.  That's okay though.

Photos: Kazakhstan, Answers.com, Cira.colostate.edu; Kyrgyzstan, stamps.elcat.kg; Turkmenistan,  Tajikistan, jeff560.tripod; Uzbekistan, Pomexport.com .

Thanks to all the stamp collectors who scanned these collectibles into the Internet.

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