Thematic : Elephants.

African elephant, by Guinea 1975 and Burundi 1971:

Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) on stamps of Malaya, Japan and Malaysia:

Stone engravings of elephants in temple walls:

Lion temple of Musawwarat, Sudan, issued by DDR on June 23, 1970:

Mohenjo-Daro in Sindh, Pakistan, issued by Mali on September 6, 1976:

Temple of Borobudur Indonesia, issued by Indonesia on March 1, 1968:

Temple of Bayon, Angkor, issued by Cambodia on April 3, 2001:

Buddha's Mother Dream

Queen Mahamaya was the wife of Suddhodana, King of Sakya. One full moon night, the queen had a dream. She was chosen to be the mother of a child that one day would become either a King or a spiritual leader. The Buddha descending from heaven in a form of white elephant , entering her body to achieve conception.

Here are two stamps from Sri Lanka, issued in 1983 and 1976, show the scene of the dream with the white elephant:

Two sheets show elephant in zoo:

Asian elephant in Lisbon zoo, issued by Portugal on June 11, 2001:


Asian elephant family in zoo in Australia, issued by Australia on September 28, 1994:

Jataka refer to a collection of legends concerning the previous births of the Buddha as were told by the Buddha himself in his sermons to emphasize certain moral ways of life.

Here is a stamp, issued by Thailand on July 19, 1997 to mark the Asalha Puja, a festival celebrating the Buddha's first sermon in which he set out the doctrine that had come to him following his enlightenment. The stamp shows a scene from the Mahosadha Jataka, the clever Sage legend, taken from Thai temple mural painting:

Same mural painting on the SS backgroud:

Elephant, issued by Sierra Leone on May 31, 1999 as part of the set of 15 stamps "A Wonderland of Wildlife":

Animal personalities: Bahati with her twins Rashidi and Ramadhani of Lake Manyara, issued by Tanzania on July 15, 1982:

One design, twelve versions....

On October 15, 1959, two sets of animal definitive stamps, designed by Jean Van Noten, were issued for use in the Belgian territories of Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi. The sets contain elephant stamps. Here is one from each:


These stamps were overprinted several times and reissued by different entities. In total, there are 12 versions of this design:

1) one stamp for Belgian Congo, 2 for Ruanda-Urundi. Later, one Ruanda-Urundi revalued - 1959.
2) Belgian Congo stamp was revalued and overprinted for use in Congo - 1960.
3) Belgian Congo stamp was overprinted for use in the short-lived state of Katanga established by rebels - 1960.
4) Ruanda-Urundi stamps were overprinted for use in the independent Kingdom of Burundi, one revalued - 1962.
5) Ruanda-Urundi stamps were overprinted for use in independent Rwanda, one revalued - 1964.

The tortoise, the elephant and the hippopotamus, African folktale, issued by the Central African Republic on February 9, 1971:

Issued in a set of five stamps show different African folktales:

Elephants in Buddhist scenes, stamps from Bhutan 1968, 1986 and Sri Lanka 1986 and 2008. The stamp of Bhutan 1968 is made of silk:

To mark the 2550th anniversary of Buddhism, Sri Lanka issued on May 5, 2006 a set of 50 stamps shows Buddhist scenes taken from mural and rock paintings in local temples and holy sites. Here are four of them show elephants:

Two from Somalia, both were designed by the Italian artist D. Vangelli:

Tarzan, king of the apes - 1995:

Arabian tales - 1997:

In the previous page of this thread, I posted a set from Mongolia shows the Buddhist legend about the four harmonious friends, elephant, rabbit, monkey and bird.
https://goscf.com/t/10733&whichpage=31#775920

Here are a set and SS from Bhutan show the same legend:

A set of two stamps issued on December 31, 1999, to celebrate the Millennium Year 2000:


A souvenir sheet issued on February 3, 2011 to celebrate the New Chinese Year of the Rabbit:

In 1907, a long set of definitive stamps was issued for Moyen Congo. It contains three different designs, each was issued in different color and value. Later, these stamps were overprinted for use in different colonies. I show here the stamps overprinted for use in Chad.

Each design has elephant or elephant ivories. In this stamp, two elephants heads on the bottom, surrounding the value with their trunks. I scanned the bottom in high resolution:


The rest two designs have elephant ivories on the bottom: