In an attempt to make the abundant and unique artistic heritage of the Korean people known throughout the world, the Ministry of Communications seizes this occasion to issue special stamps featuring some of the exhibits and other works of art valued as national treasures. And the following two stamps are the last of the sets planned for this year, the 9th Issue, overall.

There is something special about these two stamps. It is that they are the first Korean stamps printed in intaglio (i.e., printed with an engraved plate). They depict the same object, a Deva King, in two different colors.
Deva King.
This sculpture is carved on a vestibule wall of "Sokkuram", an artificial stone-cave temple in Kyongju, the like of which is rarely found in Korea. One of its differentiating features is that is was made by man, whereas those found 751 A.D. by Kim Dae Sung, who also designed the famous Buddhist temple Bulkuksa. Constructed in the hey-day of the Unified Shilla Period, when Buddhism and its art were at their best in our history, this temple reflects the cream of the Buddhist art of the period.