After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 the independant Tibetan government established its own postal service, and issued its own stamps, although these were only valid for internal use as Tibet did not join the Universal Postal Union.
Tibetan independance lasted until the overthrowal of the Republic of China by the Communists in 1949, and the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The People's Liberation Army entered Eastern Tibet in 1950, and extended Chinese control over all of Tibet during the next few years. A Tibetan governement existed until March 1959, when it was disolved following a failed uprising. On 9th September 1965 Tibet became an Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. As Chinese post offices were opened throughout Tibet, Tibetan stamps became replaced by Chinese stamps, and Tibetan stamps ceased to be used anywhere after the dissolution of the Tibetan government in 1959.
Most stamps were xylographed locally, and printed on Tibetan paper. The primitive method of production meant that a wide variety of variations and shades occur for each stamp. All sets were printed using dull ink and/or shiny enamel paint. Many of the stamps were reprinted a number of times over many years.
skar སྐར་ (pronounced gar)
zho ཞོ་ (pronounced sho) = 10 skar = ⅔ ṭangka
ṭangka ཊམ་ (pronounced trangka) = 1½ zho = 15 skar
srang སྲྔ་ (pronounced sang) = 10 zho = 6⅔ ṭangka
Issued : 1912-1950
Tibetan Inscription : བོད་གཞུང་ཡིག་ཐིའུ་ [Tibetan Government Postal Service]
English Inscription : TIBET POSTAGE
Size : 19 x 23mm
Perforation : Imperforate
Sheets : 12 (4 x 3)
Notes : Stamps 1-5 occur as lithographs on European paper as well as xylographs on Tibetan paper. Some authorities maintain that the European lithographs issues are forgeries, whilst other authorities believe that the first issue of this set was made in London in 1912 on European paper, and only later reprinted by xylography in Tibet on local paper.
| No. | Value | Issued | Colour | Variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2½ skar | 1912 | Green | a. Perforated b. Dull yellow-green imperf. (1920) c. Dull yellow-green perf. (1920) d. Olive-green (1922) |
| 2 | 5 skar སྐར་ཡྔ་། | 1912 | Blue | a. Ultramarine b. Grey-blue (1932) |
| 3 | 7½ skar ཕྱེད་བརྒྱད་། | 1912 | Violet | a. Perforated b. Lilac (1914) c. Purple (1930) |
| 4 | 1 zho ཞོ་གང་། | 1912 | Carmine | a. "POTSAGE" for "POSTAGE" b. Brown-red c. Lake (1923) |
| 5 | 1 ṭangka ཊམ་གཅིག་། | 1912 | Vermilion | a. Brown-red (1925) b. Carmine (1930) |
| 6 | 1 srang སྲྔ་གང་། | 1922 | Grey-green | a. Blue-green (1950) |
Issued : 1914
Tibetan Inscription : བོད་གཞུང་ཡིག་ཐིའུ་ [Tibetan Government Postal Service]
English Inscription : TIBET POSTAGE
Perforation : Imperforate
Sheets : 6 (3 x 2)
Notes : Originally issued in 1914, both stamps of the set were reprinted in 1950. A blue 8 ṭangka stamp exists, but this is believed to be a forgery.
| No. | Value | Colour | Variants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 ṭangka ཊམ་བཞི་ | Deep-blue | a. Indigo b. Dull grey-blue |
| 2 | 8 ṭangka ཊམ་བརྒྱད་ | Vermilion | a. Carmine b. Pink |
Issued : 1933-1960
Tibetan Inscription : བོད་གཞུང་སྦྲགས་གླ་ [Tibetan Government Postage]
English Inscription : TIBET
Size : 24 x 24mm
Perforation : Pin perforations (6-15) and Imperforate
Sheets : 12 (4 x 3 )
Notes : All stamps in this set were reprinted many times in various shades. Bisected and quarted stamps were used during 1953-1954.
| No. | Value | Colour | Variants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7½ skar སྐར་༱ | Orange | |
| 2 | 1 zho ཞོ་གང་ | Deep Blue | |
| 3 | 1 ṭangka ཊཾ་༡ | Carmine | |
| 4 | 2 ṭangka ཊཾ་༢ | Scarlet | |
| 5 | 4 ṭangka ཊཾ་༤ | Emerald-green |
| No. | Value | Colour | Variants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7½ skar སྐར་༱ | Orange | a. Yellow (1935) b. Bistre (1940) |
| 2 | 1 zho ཞོ་གང་ | Deep-blue | a. Grey-blue (1942) b. Indigo (1950) c. Violet-blue (1960) |
| 3 | 1 ṭangka ཊཾ་༡ | Carmine | a. Scarlet (1938) b. Orange (1943) c. Cinnamon (1954) |
| 4 | 2 ṭangka ཊཾ་༢ | Scarlet | a. Rose-carmine (1946) b. Cinnamon (1950) c. Orange (1951) |
| 5 | 4 ṭangka ཊཾ་༤ | Emerald-green | a. Olive-green (1938) b. Apple-green (1947) c. Myrtle-green (1950) d. Dull-green (1951) |
| 5a | 4 ṭangka ཊཾ་༤ | Green | This is a recarving of one block that was lost from the original 12 loose blocks that were used to print a sheet of 12 stamps. The recarved block is slightly larger than the original (25 x 25mm as compared with 24 x 24mm), and the design is noticeably different, especially the larger word "TIBET". Shades are as for No.5. |
Postmarked :
Issued : 1945
Tibetan Inscription : བོད་གཞུང་…
English Inscription : STAMP
Size : Various
Perforation : Imperforate
Notes : Some authorities believe that this is a set of stamps for official use by organs of the Tibetan government. However, other authorities maintain that these are non-postal stamps.
| No. | Value | Colour | Size | Variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 skar | brown-green | 32.5 x 32.5mm | |
| 2 | 1 zho | brown-red | 34 x 33mm | |
| 3 | 5 skar | olive-green | 44 x 44mm | |
| 4 | 5 skar | grey | 35 x 28.5mm | |
| 5 | 1 srang | grey-blue | 66 x 66mm |
Qing Dynasty Stamps | Stamps of the People's Republic of China