Sacred Animals of Hinduism
Guinea Bissau Post issued a beautiful Souvenir Sheet and a set of four stamps in the year 2010 featuring Sacred Animals of Hinduism. Issues from Guinea Bissau and some other African countries are always very controversial among serious stamp collectors whether to include them in collection or not. As these stamps are issued on themes which are not related with the subjects of their own country. So many of the issues are regarded as illegitimate issues and are not preferred by advance collectors to display them in their exhibits. But these are legitimate issues of Guinea Bissau and appear in the catalogue. It is a beautiful issue which any Indian would love to have in his/her collection !!
About Guinea Bissau…
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west.
It covers 36,125 km² (nearly 14,000 sq mi) with an estimated population of 1,600,000.
Guinea-Bissau was once part of the kingdom of Gabu, as well as part of the Mali Empire. Parts of this kingdom persisted until the 18th century, while a few others were part of the Portuguese Empire since the 16th century. It then became the Portuguese colony of Portuguese Guinea in the 19th century. Upon independence, declared in 1973 and recognised in 1974, the name of its capital, Bissau, was added to the country's name to prevent confusion with the bordering Republic of Guinea.
Only 14% of the population speaks the official language, Portuguese. A plurality of the population (44%) speaks Kriol, a Portuguese-based creole language, and the remainder speak native African languages. The main religions are African traditional religions and Islam, and there is a Christian (mostly Catholic) minority.
