Megan

Why do you think this, Dug? I agree with you, by the way. The enamel looks wrong, for a start...

Yesterday I added what appears to be the next highest order, the Order of the United Republic of Tanzania (Nishani ya Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania)... but apart from the name and the ribbon colours, can I find any information or images? Can I heck as like!! The next one will be the Order of the Declaration of Arusha (Nishani ya Azimio la Arusha), and I haven't found much more about that - 3 classes, I know what the ribbon looks like, and I found one star... oh, and it's awarded for political services. This is very frustrating but great fun as well!

Oooh, magic. Thank you, Graeme.

Next, I've revisited the Order of the Torch of Kilimanjaro (Nishani ya Mwenge Wa Kilimanjaro). I think it was established in 1973, but the few sources I've found vary a bit, some say 1977. Not much to add to what I have previously said, but I think that the Class 1 insignia consists of a sash with badge and a star. The star and badge both look very similar. Class 2 is a neck badge. As for Class 3, no idea. Some sources state that there are 4 classes... It's awarded to heads of state (Class 1), heads of government(Class 2), and governmental ministers (Class 3). I understand it may be awarded to Tanzanian citizens as well as to foreigners. No new images to present, alas, but the badge is an oval medallion with a blunt toothed design around its outer edge. At the centre of the badge is an enamelled oval depicting a flaming torch standing on top of Mount Kilimanjaro. This image is surrounded by a band of blue enamel inscribed with the name of the Order MWENGE WA KILIMANJARO [TORCH OF KILIMANJARO].

Blowing the dust off, started looking at Tanzania again last night. I last looked at that section of my site in 2013! The Order of Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere (Nishani ya Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere) was instituted in December 2011 and is awarded to retired democratically-elected presidents of Tanzania, with the first awards being made in 2011 to the then three people who qualified. Nyerere had already died by then, the insignia was presented to his widow. Two more awards have subsequentally been made in 2024, one of those posthumous. As you can imagine with such limited criteria for award, images of the insignia are hard to find. Finding a few images of the presentations, it appears to have a collar, a sash and badge, and a star... but even these pictures are very indistinct.

Thank you, Marco - I just put up the pages for the Star and Medal for Faithful Service with "ribbon unknown", so these can now be updated. Your help, as always, is appreciated 🤓

What are the correct ribbons for the Star and the Medal for Faithful Service, please? Radburn has the Star for Faithful Service as red with yellow edges and a yellow central stripe, and the Medal for Faithful Service as red with white edges. Antonio Prieto Barrio has used Radburn's charts in making his. Archie's ones here are the Star for Faithful Service on a red ribbon with white edges and the Medal for Faithful Service on an orange medal with a brown central stripe. I'm now very confused.

A fine beastie indeed.

Both identifications are correct... enjoy your new ribbons!

Oooh... what a pleasant thing to greet you on your return! Nice stuff indeed, thank you for showing us.

Perhaps 立功 could better be translated as "Meritorious Acts" rather than "Meritorious Service"? Thank you for the link to the Chinese Wikipedia page. Worthy of study, but unfortunately it's not been translated into any other languages, let alone one I am more proficient in! However it deals with very recently-instituted awards, so may not be as helpful with the older ones that you are exploring. And particular thanks for your kind words about my website. It continues to grow as time permits...

The USSR was more given to multi-purpose awards, but you might want to consider the Order of the Red Banner which could be awarded for individual gallantry or exceptional leadership in combat. The Order of Glory may fit your needs, as that is only awarded for courage in the face of the enemy, but it's relatively junior in the order of precedence.

Thank you for all your efforts. I still have to get to grips with Chinese awards. Your work will be invaluable.

Slovenia - Medalja za ranjence [Medal for the Wounded] - instituted 1991. Awarded to members of the Slovenian Army who are wounded in combat with the enemy, as a result of enemy combat operations or through no fault of their own while performing military service in peacetime. The medal is silver with a sylised drop of blood on the obverse. The reverse is engraved with the recipient's name and the date on which they were wounded. The ribbon is red. It is worn on the left above the jacket pocket. Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia No,41/2007 of 11 May 2007 - https://www.uradni-list.si/glasilo-uradni-list-rs/vsebina/80149 Crossed swords are added above the medal for wartime awards.

Slovakia... Medaila Za zranenie v boji (Medal for Wounded in Combat), instituted 2015. Only found a drawing so far... It appears that the better a target you are, the more stripes on the ribbon. Found a PDF (in Slovakian of course) with more details: https://www.vhu.sk/data/att/8386.pdf

It's great to have you here, David. Welcome aboard, and do stick around.

And this is the best I can find for the Order of the Flag (from a book review in Korean, nicely illustrated with a few pages of the book... which I really need to track down!). Does look like the actual collar is the same for both orders...

These are fascinating... I have a lot to learn about Chinese medals! As for North Korea, they don't, as you note, issue 'bars' for repeat awards, just give you another set. Hence those pictures of senior officers with large numbers of stars on their tunics. The neck ribbons are for awards to foreigners. As for the collars, I'm stil trying to find out more about them. Here is the Collar of the Order of Freedom and Independence.

How much say does the recipient have over what appears on their medal, apart from being able to say they want it in Welsh? (eek, my mind swirched over to Welsh, took ages to formulate the question in English! 🤓)

Doing a bit more delving, the collar of the Order of the National Flag is normally only awarded to foreigners - so your Chinese recipient would qualify - although Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Il Suk awarded the collar to themselves, the only North Koreans believed to hold it. Oh, and the oval gold connecting piece is a "national emblem", it seems. Awards of class 2 and class 3 to foreigners can be presented on a neck ribbon,again using the national emblem as a suspension link. Here is a Class 3 mounted thus:-

With reference to your North Korean Order of the National Flag... Mario Volpe, who creates beautiful paintings of world orders, shows a collar the same as the one you've presented: The oval gold piece is not a collar badge, it's used as a connecting link to attach the star to the collar. This is the way that the Order of Freedom and Independence collar works as well.

Amazing, some wholly-new awards and others rarely-seen: Chinese awards, particulary those of the Communist state, are poorly docimented. Keepup the good work, thank you! Or perhaps I should say, 謝謝

Ah.... then I have both of them in the wrong place... once I retreat to my corner this will be rectified. Thank you, Marco! (For the curious, my morning read of GMIC is on a laptop in the front part of the house, then I retreat to my corner where my big computer is with all the work stuff AND all the medals stuff is to be found, including the local copy of the medals site where I do the edits before uploading to the server where it can be viewed on the web...)

(And yes, the Year 2 Jeopardy board - and invasion by fellow trying to deliver my groceries! - so keeping sane listening to the meeting & doing image manipulations!)

Get well soon, Archie. Marco, you are welcome for the image, I'll replace it with the black background later. You've given the order of precedence for the better-known military Sandile Decoration, that was awarded to members of the Ciskei Defence Force. Do you think that this version, awarded to Ciskei Police officers, ought to be next to it? (That's the nice thing about writing websites, you can move stuff around easily! Although as my book-writing plans are based on PDF, it's also easy to make amendments...)