Vietnam Post "Vietnamese Fairy Tale: The Hundred-knot Bamboo Tree

VIETNAM POST on 1 June 2024 issued a set of four First Day Cover stamps entitled "Vietnamese Fairy Tale: The Hundred-knot Bamboo Tree". One block stamp was also issued (not shown here). The face values were 4,000VND, 4,000VND, 6,000VND, 10,500 VND and 15,000 VND. Stamp size: 32 x 43 (mm).FDC size: 200 x 110 (mm). The designer was Ms. Le Khanh Vuong.

The Ministry of Information and Communications had the stamps created to spread the humanistic and educational message of Vietnamese fairy tales. The purpose was to promote hard work, honesty and fight injustice. 

ABOUT THE FAIRY TALE

Once upon a time, one poor, gentle and hard-working man worked as a servant for a rich landlord with the belief in the landlord's promise to let his daughter marry him 3 years later. When the time came, the landlord went back on his promise and asked the man to find a hundred-knot bamboo tree as a condition for the wedding. The man went to the forest in search for the tree but he couldn't find it, so he sat down and cried. The Buddha appeared and told him to cut one hundred knots of bamboo and taught him the spell "Stick together, stick together" to connect the knots and "Unstick, unstick" to separate them.

When the man returned to the village and found the landlord organizing a wedding for his daughter with another person, he showed the landlord the bamboo knots and recited the spell, making the landlord be also stuck to the bamboo tree. Only when the landlord agreed to keep his promise did the bay recite the spell to release the landlord, in the end, the poor man and the landlord's daughter lived together happily forever.

Source: Vietnam Post