I can imagine a young British stamp collector in 1938, for example my father, staring incredulously at this stamp. The King showing a peak at a colony on the other side of the globe where instead of Anglican Cathedrals there are palaces containing something as foreign as a Temple of the Tooth. Must have made him excited to serve the Empire and see the world. My fathers Empire service never got to Ceylon but he made it as far as Egypt, India, Iraq, and Burma. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
I have a great deal of love for this style of stamp. A standard design, printed in England, with a room for an individual colony name. Then the window into the exotic colony. Maybe a bridge the British built, or the industry the colony takes part in, or even just a tourist style picture of an exotic landscape. Then there is this one. Buddhists believed that Buddha’s tooth relic conferred with it the right to rule. The Kandy Palace complex that housed the Tooth now also held the British Colonial Governor. Amazing!
Todays stamp is issue A54, a 25 Cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Ceylon in 1938. These stamps replaced an earlier issue with King George V. This design never made it Queen Elizabeth II as it did with other colonies as Ceylon got independence before then. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used. Some experts believe George VI issues are a good place to be for the Empire collector as prices are still so reasonable. The same stamp from 1935 with George V is worth 5 times as much.
Buddha died in modern day India in 543 BC. He was cremated. A Tooth that survived the cremation was then presented to the local King for safekeeping. The King started the tradition of building a temple on the grounds of the palace to preserve it. Over a long period of time possession of the Tooth came to be seen as conferring the right to Rule. Around 300 AD the tooth was smuggled to the Kingdom of Kandy on the island that later became Ceylon and now is Sri Lanka. The practice of Buddhism was fading in the India of the day.
That does not mean Buddhists did not want to get control of the tooth. The native King of Burma offered a ransom to Portuguese adventures for the tooth. The Kingdom of Kandy then faced many attempts to capture the tooth and it had to be moved several times to retain procession. Portuguese attacks and attempts to conquer were eventually solved by the Kingdom affiliating with the Dutch. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/22/the-british-require-a-duty-so-send-kandy/ .
With the Napoleonic wars in Europe, Dutch interests in Kandy passed to the British in exchange for Britain recognizing the Dutch takeover of Belgium. The British felt they needed to exert more direct control than the Dutch and after a few wars the Kingdom of Kandy became the colony of Ceylon. Surprisingly, the tooth was not shipped off to London to be a curiosity in a museum but stayed in its temple on the palace grounds with the palace now occupied by Sir John D’Oyly, the 1st Baronet of Kandy. You can probably guess that Sir John had somewhat gone native, he spoke Sinhalese and took up with local poet Gajaman Nona. She had come to him to appeal for aid after her husband died leaving her with many children. He granted her a Nindagama, a house and small farm. From then on her love poems were written for him.
Ceylon was granted independence in 1946. Great Britain had fought two World Wars where colonies like Ceylon were no shows, it was time for separation. The time as a British colony left now Sri Lanka with a large non Buddhist practicing Indian minority. So as with Kandy’s time with the Portuguese, the Temple of the Tooth has been attacked repeatedly by local Indians. Wonder if Sri Lanka will consider putting in a call to the Dutch Ambassador?
Well my drink is empty so I will patiently await tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.