Polo at Shandur – the highest polo ground

Horse is a mighty animal God ever created. Its loyalty and faithfulness attracted it to men, who became its best friends, and masters. The horses not only helped in transportation but also took men to war. But beside that, horses also played when their masters chose to play polo. Played all over the world, the royalties in the Indo-Pak subcontinent also played a game known as Chogan, similar to the game of polo as played today. One of the kings, Qutab ud Din Aibak died while playing polo in Lahore and is now buried in Anarkali - one of the oldest bazaars of Lahore.

While polo is played in all major cantonments of Pakistan, as it is one of the most popular sports in the army, the game at Shandur, 3,700 meters above sea level, near Chitral has a charm of its own. Polo was first played here as far back in 1936, when one Major Cobb, the British Political Agent of then Northern Areas started playing polo at night when it was a full moon, since he thought that moon looked so near the earth that a match in a moonlit night would change the very meaning of the game. Because of this the Shandur polo ground came to be referred to as the "Moony Polo Ground".

The Pakistani-bred Punjabi and Afghan Badakshani ponies, both the result of breeding from Himalayan mountain ponies and English thoroughbreds, are ridden in a wild style, with a lot of skill and at full speed.

Due to its distant location and special climatic conditions, only teams from Chitral and Gilgit participate in the annual Shandur Polo Festival, held in July each year when the snow has melted and the weather is just right for the game to go on. The match is the centrepiece attraction of the Annual Shandur Festival, and a large number of local and foreigners participate in the festivities besides enjoying a hearty polo match.

Watching Polo at Shandur in the full moon may not possible now, but it’s a once in lifetime dream for any polo player to reach to the venue and watch it being played on perhaps the highest polo ground of the world.

To commemorate the game at amid towering snow clad mountains, the Pakistan Post issued a stamp of Rs. 5 denomination in 2006.

Related Reading:

Polo at Shandur (Pakistanpaedia)

Tomb of Qutab ud Din Aibak (Pakistanpaedia)

Chitral (Pakistanpaedia)

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World Postal Day

9th of October is celebrated as the World Post day as it was this day in 1874 when the Universal Postal Union (UPU) was established. In those days, the postal services were in their infancy all over the world and there was requirement to coordinate and harmonize the postal services for the people living in various parts of the world. In other words, the main objective of union was to maintain and create the structure for open flows of the worldwide mail around world.

It was Montgomery Blair, Postmaster General in USA, who prepared the conference of the legislature from 15 American and European countries in 1863, which could be termed as the cue for the establishment of the UPU nine years later. In fact it all started when on September 15, 1874, Heinrich von Stephan, a senior postal official in the then North German Confederation (an area that now forms parts of Germany, Poland and Russia), opened a conference in Berne, Switzerland, with delegates from 22 countries. On October 9, 1874, the delegates signed the Treaty of Berne and established the General Postal Union. The number of countries that were members of the General Postal Union grew rapidly and the union's name was changed to the Universal Postal Union in 1878. In 1948, the Universal Postal Union became a specialized agency of the United Nations.

Today with 189 member countries across the globe, the UPU is the world's largest physical distribution network, that regulates all matters related to post and postal services.

For the last 35 years, UNESCO and UPU have joined hands to organize the global competition of the letter-writing for the young people. Most of the participating postal services use this special day to award the prizes to competition winners.

Like all other countries, Pakistan is also celebrating the day with its postal system that dates back to 1852, when the Scinde Dawk ushered in a new era of postal services for the first time in the South East Asia. To mark the occasion, an impressive UPU-flag hoisting ceremony was organized in the Directorate General, which was attended by a huge gathering of Postal Officer and staff. Despite the era of e-mails and SMSs, the postal services of Pakistan are one of the best, efficient and available in the remotest parts of Pakistan.

Related Links/Reading: Scinde Dawk

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A page from my stamp album - Czechoslovakia - Page 2

Czechoslovakia was the name of a country that exisited on world map since 1918. It was initially part of the greater Austro-Hungarian Empire, but later in 1918 after the WW-I, it declared independence and became a sovereign state. The country since then had gone under difficult times of its history. During the period of the WW-II (1939-45), it bore the wrath of the German invasion and was partially incorporated into the then Germany.

After the WW-II, a apart of the Czechoslovakia (to be more precise the eastern part of Carpathian Ruthenia) was taken over by then USSR, while the remaining country continued to be a severing country once again.

Stamps of Czechoslovakia: A page from my stamp album

Since the country mainly consisted of two major parts, i.e. Cesko and Slovensko, the two could not co-exist as one country for long since both were culturally and economically at par with each other. Therefore, after long misunderstandings and bitterness, on January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia finally split into two independent states: the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

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My collection of Czechoslovakia is of the times when the country as Czechoslovakia was intact. I have already shared the first page of my stamp collection of Czechoslovakia. Here is the second page with all its beautiful stamps that I collected from a period from 1966-1975.

Related Reading: A page from my stamp album - Czechoslovakia

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