P. R. CHINA

This covers from P.R. China depicts a miniature sheet issued in 2000 celebrating the UNESCO World Heritage Site Longmen Grottoes, one of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Housing tens of thousands of statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and his disciples, they are located 12 kilometres south of present-day Luoyang in Henan province, China. The images, many once painted, were carved as outside rock reliefs and inside artificial caves excavated from the limestone cliffs of the Xiangshan and Longmenshan, running east and west. In 2000 the site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as "an outstanding manifestation of human artistic creativity," for its perfection of an art form, and for its encapsulation of the cultural sophistication of Tang China.

TIMOR LESTE

CROATIA

This cover from Croatia depicts 2 stamps of the same type with a picture of the Northern Velebit National Park, which is part of the UNESCO site Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. This site comprises undisturbed examples of temperate forests that demonstrate the postglacial expansion process of European beech from a few isolated refuge areas in the Alps, Carpathians, Dinarides, Mediterranean, and Pyrenees. The site was originally listed in 2007 as the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians, shared by Slovakia and Ukraine, extended in 2011 to include the Ancient Beech Forests of Germany, and further extended in 2017 and 2021 to include forests in a total of 18 countries.

P. R. CHINA

INDONESIA

ALBANIA

TURKEY

P. R. CHINA

SENEGAL

My first cover from Senegal. A new country in my collection.

PHILIPPINES

PHILIPPINES

P. R. CHINA