Hindu Gods on Foreign Currency and stamps
Often we think that Hindu gods and Goddesses are found in different forms in India only. This is primarily because India is a Hindu nation and so Hindu gods are supposed to be our rightful possessions. However, you would be surprised to know that many places out of India have stamps and currencies depicting them. Let us read more about Hindu gods on foreign currency.
Lord Ganesh is pictured on a 20000 Indonesian rupee note. Though South India has Ganesh idols dated 6 AD in Indonesia some idols date back to 1 AD. Java is also known as Ganapathy Land, a country where Ganesh is worshiped. It is said that Ganesh traveled faster through water. Maybe that is the reason why he can be found in multiple places in Indonesia.
Indonesia has also released multiple stamps featuring Ramayana and Mahabharata characters. These characters are very popular in that country and all people residing there know about them.
The Local Currency Of Holland
Raam is a Bearer Bond or local currency (note it's not a Currency of Holland). It was issued by Stichting Maharishi Global Financing Research (SMDFR), a charitable foundation based in Holland. The Raam was launched on October 26, 2001. The Global Country of World Peace, issued the brightly colored notes of one, five and 10 “Raam”. The Guru Maharishi Mahesh start this currency with the name of Lord Raam because he believed in Ram-RAJYA. He is also a great devotee of Lord Ram. Since then, more than 125 Dutch shops have accepted this currency. Few shops in the USA also, in 30 villages and cities have accepted the notes. This includes some big department stores too.
In the year 2010, the US postal department launched stamps featuring Hindu deities. An Atlanta-based company which was headed by an Indian American was behind the postage stamps featuring Hindu Gods. This company known as USA-postage.com launched the first series of these postage stamps. They were in the denomination of 44 cents and featured Sai Baba, Lord Venkateshwara, Lakshmi, Murugan, Vinayaka, Shiva-Parvathi and Sri Krishna. “These postages have not been issued by the US Postal Service, but these are as good as stamps. We do not call them stamps. We call them as postages. But these can be used as any other normal stamp," Roy Betts, spokesman of USPS said.
In the year 2009 Government of Thailand released remarkable new edition of stamps. These depicted the Hindu Deities and hence pleased the Indians living there. Thailand has a remarkable affinity to the Hindu Religion and Thai people are obviously proud of their Indian connection.