þÿ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-16"> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive"> <title>LA 2001 New Year in Luang Prabang</title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff"> <table width="700" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="57%"> <h4><font color="blue" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">LAOS</font></h4> </td> <td align="right" width="50%"><img src="../../../design/Flags/LA.gif" alt="" height="47" width="71" border="0"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="57%"> <h3><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Laotian Mythology</font></h3> </td> <td align="right" width="50%"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Date of issue: 15 September 1972</font></td> </tr> </table> <p>The set consists of 3 stamps of which one is cat-related, namely the LAK 150 value showing the Norasingh.</p> <p><a href="../../../scans/Wild_cats/Lion/LA/LA20010413%20ST%20300%20LIO.JPG"><img src="../../../scans/Mythic%20cats/MISC/LA19720915%20ST%20150%20Norasing.jpg" alt="" height="617" width="475" border="0"></a></p> <p>The stamp depicts Norasingh  Regarded as one of Vishnu avatars (Incarnation of a divine being onto earth) that serves protective functions, often seen in temples and shrines entrances. He lives in the forest of Himaphan, a place of never-ending rice. He is a chimera of upper part as human being and the lower part as a lion body.</p> <p><i>Information provided by Eli Moallem</i></p> </body></html>