The Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus), the camel with two humps, is one of the tavunhorshoo (five snouts), the five domesticated animals on which the mongolian's herding economy depends (horse, cow/yak, sheep, goat, and camel). With its tolerance for cold, drought, and high altitudes, it enabled the travel of caravans on the Silk Road. A Bactrian camel can go nine days without water, 33 days without food.
It can carry at least 200kg of goods and walks at five kilometers per hour in its peculiar rolling gait. In other words, it is as fast as a packhorse, and has three times the carrying capacity. Unloaded, a camel can outrun a horse. In winter it continues to work through minus-twenty-degree temperatures. Because of the camel, the semi-deserts of the Gobi have not formed a barrier between Mongolia and the south. Even now, camels carry up to thirty percent of the cargo traffic in the Gobi.
Camel racing is a popular sport in Mongolia. The most important mongolian camel festival is Temeenii bayar, which held in the Gobi Desert outside Dalanzadgad. Before the race begins, there is a beauty parade, where the camels walk passed the crowd, many in colourful Mongolian traditional dress and admire the shaggy-haired camels as they walk passed. After the parade, the owners mount their beasts to drive them on a dusty, chaotic nine-mile race across the steppeland.
About the stamps
Mongolia
The stamp is part of the series Orient Express, about which I wrote here.
China
The stamp is part of the series designed by Xia Tianxing, Zou Yuli & Yang Wenqing and issued on November 11, 2011 to mark The 27th Asian International Stamp Exhibition CHINA 2011 - Wuxi.
United States
Two of the stamps are part of the series Views of Our Planets, about which I wrote here.
The last stamp, The Repeal of the Stamp Act, was issued on May 29, 2016 to commemorates the 250th anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act - British legislation that galvanized and united the American colonies and set them on a path toward revolution. The act required payment of a tax on a wide array of paper materials, such as newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents, licenses, mortgages, contracts, and bills of sale. A stamp would be embossed on these papers to indicate payment. The postage stamp depicts a crowd gathered around a “liberty tree” to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act.
References
Mongolian camels - The Gobi Desert Story
Sender:
Sent from China (on 21.03.2014), to Greenvale (New York / United States), then from Greenvale (on 11.06.2016), to Romania (Ploieşti).
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