Mountain imprints

From stamps on snow-covered mountain slopes,pristine lakes in valleys,rare wildlife and flora to silhouettes of mountaineers on popular peaks,Sashindran has for long been enamoured by nature. “There are many fascinating stories on why countries issue mountain stamps. Some issue them even though they do not have mountains in their country,” says the 48-year old Air Force doctor.

An avid trekker,Sashindran has led many expeditions,including one to the Pemashree mountain peak in Arunachal Pradesh — a spiritual site for Buddhists — in 2009 with five climbers. His passion for trekking morphed into collecting stamps. “As a child,I would collect stamps from all countries,of all things. But once I nurtured my love for mountaineering,mountain stamps became an obsession,” he says. The oldest stamp in his collection is an 1872 stamp from Nicaragua.

Sashindran started collecting mountain stamps in 2005. For four months in that year,he catalogued countries that issued mountain stamps,compiling a list of stamps issued by them. After that he was able to assess the frequency with which countries issued such stamps. “I observed that Nepal and Switzerland issued stamps annually much more than India,which issues once in two-three years,” he says.

Countries issue such stamps for various reasons: from raising awareness about conservation,commemoration of a great occasion,to highlighting the natural beauty. In many countries,such stamps boost tourism. “Small island nations rely heavily on mountain stamps,” he says. For instance in Switzerland,it is an important source of livelihood as the peaks featured are done with an intent to popularise tourism. A small island nation in the North Pacific,Palau’s economy depends heavily on revenue from philately.

There have been a few odd ones too. In 1992,North Korea issued a stamp with its leader Kim Jong II dressed in a fur coat,standing at the peak on Mt Paektu on the China-North Korea border. “It is believed that he has descended from the mountain peak,” says Sashindran. Tibet issued a series of stamps a few years ago with a bullet train passing at the base of Mt Fuji,Japan,to honour the mountain. When the UN declared 2002 as the International Year of Mountains,Canada issued a commemorative stamp with eight tallest peaks from seven continents to honour two Canadian mountaineers who had conquered them.

While mountains figure in stamps,mountaineers rarely do. “Usually mountaineers are the unknown faces behind mountain stamps. They are not considered as important as a mountain and are represented only by a silhouette,” says Sashindran.

There have been exceptions. In 2003,Nepal issued a stamp with the face of Babu Chiru Sherpa,the man who climbed Mt Everest 10 times and died on the 11th attempt.