0716 TAIWAN - A Seediq pair from Nantou playing the jaw harp

The Seediq (Sediq, Seejiq) are an aboriginal people who live primarily in Nantou County and Hualien County, and were officially recognised as Taiwan's 14th indigenous group in 2008. Seediq and Taiya share cultural similarities, in particular the importance of face tattoos and the “chucao” tradition of headhunting. They are also closely related to the Truku (Atayal), both tribes having the same origin and culture, but separated early on due to different lifestyles.

0715 JORDAN - Quseir Amra (UNESCO WHS)

Located roughly 85km from Amman, this complex from Quseir Amra is a desert castle built in the early 8th century, both a fortress with a garrison and a residence of the Umayyad caliphs. What stands today is a small country cabin, meant as a royal retreat, without any military function. It is most notable for the figurative murals that remain on the ceilings inside, which depict hunting, naked women and, above one hammam, an accurate representation of the zodiac. It was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.

0714 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (Trinidad) - La Brea Pitch Lake

The Pitch Lake is the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world (40 ha), located at La Brea (Spanish for "the tar"), a town in southwestern Trinidad. It has fascinated explorers and scientists, as well as attracting tourists, since its discovery by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595. In 2011 was included in the Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

0713 VIETNAM (South Central Coast) - Hoi An Ancient Town (UNESCO WHS)

Located on the coast of the South China Sea, in the South Central Coast of Vietnam, Hội An ("peaceful meeting place"; known historically as Faifo, from the Vietnamese Hội An phố - the town of Hội An) is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century, so was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999. Its buildings and its street plan reflect the influences, both indigenous and foreign, that have combined to produce this unique site.

0712 INDIA - A snake charmer and his apprentices

Snake charming is common in some Asian and North African nations, but, without doubt, this practice is most widespread in India. Snake charmers pretend that they hypnotise the snakes by playing an instrument called pungi (although the snakes haven't the outer ear, that would enable them to hear the music). A typical performance may also include handling the snakes or performing other seemingly dangerous acts, as well as other street performance staples, like juggling and sleight of hand. Ancient Egypt was home to one form of snake charming, though the practice as it exists today likely arose in India. Many snake charmers live a wandering existence, visiting towns and villages on market days and during festivals.

0709 AUSTRALIA (Victoria) - Grampians National Park (Gariwerd)

0709 Grampians National Park (Gariwerd)

Placed at 235km west of Melbourne, Grampians National Park is a distinct section of the Western Victorian Highlands province, which in turn is part of the larger East Australian Cordillera. This sandstone mountain ranges were named Grampians after the Grampian Mountains from Scotland, but are also known by the name Gariwerd, from the local Australian Aboriginal language. They are famous for beautiful landscapes - high rocky plateaus and sheltered gullies contrast with the surrounding flat and open farmland adjoining the park.

0708 BULGARIA - Kukeri

Some customs are so deeply rooted in the traditions of the peoples, that they survive them and transmit to their descendants, even if their beliefs and their way of life were changed radically. One of these is kukeri, a pagan ritual dating back to the ancient Thracians and worshiped to Dionysos (the Thracian and Greek god associated with wine, fertility, and rebirth), which aims to scaring evil spirits, as well as to provide a good harvest, health, and happiness to the village during the coming year. For this, around New Year and before Lent, costumed men visit the peoples' houses at night (so that "the sun would not catch them on the road"), and after that they gather at the village square to dance wildly and amuse the people. Closely related traditions are found throughout the Balkans and Greece (in Greek-speaking Thrace - kalogeros / cuci, in former Yugoslavia - didi / didici, in Pontic Anatolia - momogeros, in Romania - capra / turca / brezaia).

0707 FRANCE (Île-de-France) - Garde républicaine on Champs-Élysées on Bastille Day

The greatest military parade in France takes place each year in Paris (since 1880, almost without exception) on the morning of 14 July, the French National Day, also known as Bastille Day. Is the oldest regular military parade in the world, and passes down the Champs-Elysées from l’Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concorde, where stand the President, his government and foreign ambassadors. Is opens with cadets from the military schools, followed by army Infantry, troupes de Marine, Air, Gendarmerie (including the Republican Guard), and then motorised and armoured troops. The parade traditionally ends with the Paris Fire Brigade, and a parachute display. At the same time occurs a flypast of the French Air Force and Naval Aviation.

0705 AUSTRALIA (Northern Territory) - Kakadu National Park (UNESCO WHS)

This archaeological and ethnological reserve of the size of Slovenia, located 171 km southeast of Darwin,  within the Alligator Rivers Region, has been inhabited continuously for more than 40,000 years. The cave paintings, rock carvings and archaeological sites record the skills and way of life of the region’s inhabitants, from the hunter-gatherers of prehistoric times to the Aboriginal people still living there, even if their lifestyle has changed in recent years.

0704 SPAIN (Basque Country) - Gaztelugatxe Islet

Located between the towns of Bakio and Bermeo, in the coast of Bizkaia, the tiny island Gaztelugatxe is connected to the mainland by a man made bridge. On top of the island stands a hermitage (named Gaztelugatxeko Doniene in Basque, San Juan de Gaztelugatxe in Spanish), dedicated to John the Baptist, that dates from the 10th century, although certain discoveries indicate that the date might be the 9th century. To reach to the hermitage, you have to climb 237 steps (or 229? or 231?), and according to legend, once gets into top, one should ring the bell three times and make a wish.

0673 & 0703 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge (UNESCO WHS)

Papal Palace in Avignon

Posted on 09.06.2013 and completed on 28.06.2013
Located on the left bank of the Rhône river, a few kilometres above its confluence with the Durance, Avignon was founded by Gauls, becoming then a Phocaean colony, and under the Romans a flourishing city. Ruled by Goths, and then included in the kingdoms of Burgundy and of Arles, it fell into the hands of the Saracens and was destroyed in 737 by the Franks. In 879 it ceased to belong to the Frankish kings, and in 1033 it passed to the Holy Roman Empire. At the end of the 12th century it declared itself an independent republic, but its independence was crushed in 1226 during the crusade against the Albigenses. In 1274, the Comtat became a possession of the popes, with Avignon itself, self-governing, under the overlordship of the Angevin count of Provence. The popes bought Avignon from the Angevin ruler for 80,000 florins in 1348. From then on until the French Revolution (1791), Avignon and the Comtat were papal possessions.

Avignon was one of the important centers of Christianity between 1309 and 1378, when seven successive popes resided here. Following the strife between the Pope Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France, and the death of his successor Benedict XI after only eight months in office, a conclave finally elected Clement V, a Frenchman, as Pope in 1305. Clement declined to move to Rome, remaining in France, and in 1309 moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon.

Saint Peter Church in Avignon

During the Avignon Papacy the town underwent extensive development, one of the most important building erected in this period being the Palace of the Popes (in the first postcard), an imposing fortress placed to the north and south of the rock of the Doms, partly on the site of the Bishop's Palace. In virtue of its severe architecture, this palace belongs to the Gothic art of the South of France, being one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in Europe. It is actually made up of two buildings: the old Palais of Benedict XII which sits on the impregnable rock of Doms, and the new Palais of Clement VI, the most extravagant of the Avignon popes.

0702 MALAYSIA - An Orang Asli playing the nose flute

Orang Asli ("original people" or "first people" in Malay) are the indigenous minority peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. Actually it is a collective term introduced by anthropologists and administrators for the 18 sub-ethnic groups generally classified for official purposes under three main groups according to their different languages and customs: Negrito, Senoi and Proto-Malay. They number about 150,000, representing a mere 0.5 per cent of the national population. They retained much of their identity to the present day because of their relative isolation from the other communities and the forces of change.

0700 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - Manchester Cathedral

On his full name the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, the Manchester Cathedral was built in Perpendicular Gothic style at the end of the 15th century, but was extensively restored and extended in the Victorian period, and then again following the severe bomb damage in WWII, during the Manchester Blitz (1940). On this site there was a church since around 700 AD, and in the 13th century was erected a new one, largest. In 1422 was established here a collegiate foundation, the third warden, Ralph Langley (1465–1481), being traditionally credited with rebuilding the nave. The early 16th century also saw the construction of an almost complete sequence of chantry chapels.

0699 SPAIN (Castile-La Mancha) - Heritage of Mercury. Almadén and Idrija - Almadén (UNESCO WHS)

Mercury is a relatively rare metal, with a decisive role in the extraction of silver and gold, so the possesion of the mercury mines had a worldwide strategic importance. Until recent times, it has been produced in substantial quantities and over a long period only by a small number of mines, of which the biggest were at Almadén in Spain and Idrija in Slovenia. These two mining towns was included on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 2012, because this dual testimony is unique, and it illustrates the various industrial, territorial, urban and social elements of a specific sociotechnical system.

0698 IRAQ - The Ahwar of Southern Iraq: Refuge of Biodiversity and the Relict Landscape of the Mesopotamian Cities (UNESCO WHS)

This UNESCO World Heritage Site is made up of seven components: three archaeological sites (the archaeological cities of Uruk, Ur and Tell Eridu, which form part of the remains of the Sumerian settlements that developed in southern Mesopotamia between the 4th and the 3rd millennium BCE in the marshy delta of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) and the Ahwar of Southern Iraq, also known as the Iraqi Marshlands, one of the world’s largest inland delta systems, in an extremely hot and arid environment. 

0697 FRANCE (Hauts-de-France) - Belfry of the St. Eligius Church of Dunkirk - part of Belfries of Belgium and France (UNESCO WHS)

Dunkirk - The Belfry of the St. Eligius Church

While Italian, German and English towns opted to build town halls, in north-western Europe greater emphasis was placed, in Middle Ages and in Early Modern Period, on building belfries. If the keep was the symbol of the seigneurs, and the bell-tower the symbol of the Church, the belfry symbolized the power of the aldermen, reaching to represent the influence and wealth of the towns. In Dunkirk, a commune in northern France, 10km from the Belgian border (known for the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from its beaches and harbour in 1940), there are two such belfries, the Belfry of the City Hall and the Belfry of the St. Eligius Church. The last one (from the postcard) is a brick construction with 58m hight, decorated with Gothic styles arches, which goes back to 1450.

0696 VIETNAM (Mekong Delta) - Women harvesting rice

Vietnam's culture has developed over the centuries from indigenous ancient Đông Sơn culture (flourished in the Ma River and Red River floodplains on about 1000 BC) with wet rice agriculture as its economic base. Today, it is one of world's richest agricultural regions and is the second-largest exporter worldwide (after Thailand) and the world's seventh-largest consumer of rice, which is a staple of the national diet and is called "white gold". The heart of the rice producing region of the country is Mekong Delta, which lies immediately to the west of Ho Chi Minh City, roughly forming a triangle from Mỹ Tho in the east to Châu Đốc and Hà Tiên in the northwest, down to Cà Mau and the South China Sea.

0694, 0695 RUSSIA (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) - A Nenet reindeer herder and Nenets' chooms

 

For those who don't know Russian, these postcards are part of a series called Nadym - Seasons, and shows two images of spring: a Nenet reindeer herder with his herd, and Nenets' chooms at the outskirts of Nadym. Nadym is a town located on the river with the same name, at 100km south of the Arctic Circle, mentioned in Russian chronicles for the first time in 1598. In the second half of the 19th century the settlement was deserted, and was reestablished only in 1968, after that the gas deposit Medvezhye was discovered nearby.

The Nenets are the most numerous branch of the Samoyedic peoples, which forms a linguistic group, not an ethnic or cultural one. There are almost 42.000 Nenets in the Russian Federation (most of them living in two autonomous okrugs: Yamalo-Nenets, and Nenets), and are divided into two distinct groups based on their economy: the Tundra Nenets (living far to the north) and the Khandeyar or Forest Nenets.

They are the guardians of a style of reindeer herding that is the last of its kind. Through a yearly migration of over a 1.000km, these people move gigantic herds of reindeer from summer pastures in the north to winter pastures just south of the Arctic Circle. No-one knows for certain whether it is the reindeer that lead the people or vice versa. What is certain is that fewer places on earth are home to a more challenging environment, with temperatures of -50C. Such a environment unites the people physically through a regimented work ethic, but they are also united by a robust and vibrant culture, which survived to a turbulent history, from early Russian colonisation, to Stalin’s terror regime, and to the modern day dangers of a rapacious oil and gas development programme.

The Nenets still rely on traditional clothing sewn by the women. A Nenets man wears a Malitsa which is a coat made of around 4 reindeer skins, the fur being closest to the skin on the inside and the leather on the outside. The Malitsa has an integrated hood and gloves and is similar to a poncho with no zips or buttons. In extreme cold conditions men wear yet another layer of reindeer fur, known as a Gus, which has leather on the inside and fur on the outside. The women wear a Yagushka which has a double layer of around 8 reindeer skins and which is buttoned at the front. Both men and women wear hip-high reindeer skin boots which consist of an inner (tobaki) and outer boot (kisy) that are worn together and tied up with a belt.

0693 CROATIA (Primorje-Gorski Kotar) - Lubenice (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Located in Kvarner Gulf of Adriatic Sea, Cres island has been inhabited since the Paleolithic time and was later ruled by the Greeks, the Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Empire. In the 7th century the island was invaded by the Croats, who lost it in favor of Republic of Venice in the 10th century. The island went through a change of rulers for centuries, being ruled by Croats, Hungarians, Venetians, Austrian Empire, and even Italians, between the end of WWI and 1947, when was assigned to Yugoslavia.

0692 GERMANY (Hesse) - Schwälmer Tracht

If you find that the girl in this postcard looks like Little Red Riding Hood, you're not wrong, because the story of Brothers Grimm originates in the Schwalm, from where also come the children from the picture. The Schwalm is a small area situated in the north of the German state of Hesse, through which flows the river of the same name.