The first postage stamps of Bhutan were issued in 1962, the same year that the first motorable road was opened.Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Part 21 South-East Asia. 4th edition. London: Stanley Gibbons, 2004, p. 1. Before that there was a mail delivery system in place for official mail using mail runners, and between 1955 and 1962 revenue stamps were accepted as payment for internal mail. With the opening up of Bhutan in the early 1960s, a formal postal system was introduced.

The American entrepreneur Burt Todd assisted in establishing a postage stamp program in the country and Bhutan became known for the unusual designs and materials of its stamps which were chosen by Todd specifically to attract attention. With the assistance of the Indian postal advisor Dr. K. Ramamurti, who was in Bhutan from 1964 to 1968, a proper postal organization and infrastructure was set up under the leadership of a young Bhutanese officer Mr. Lam Penjor, who became the Director of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.P&T Department, Royal Government of Bhutan, Postal Services in Bhutan, 'issued on the eve of inauguration of Thimphu GPO Building' (11 May 1969); see also the write-up 'a farewell dinner was given in honour of Dr. Ramamurti' in Kuensel, vol. 2, no. 15, p 5.

History of mail delivery

Mail before 1955 Prior to 1955 no systematic procedure appeared to have existed for the transmission of mail. In the absence of motorable roads, official mail was sent from one Dzong to another or to one of the royal palaces through special mail runners or casual travelers depending on the urgency. The Thrimpon (chief district court official) of each Dzong was responsible for the transmission of official mail.Karl Heinz Michel, Bhutan's Postal System, in: Scott's Monthly Stamp Journal, June 1967 pp 111ff; K H Michel, a.k.a "Kmilu", based his information on an extensive exchange of letters he had with the P&T Department

Dzong Dak system and the use of fiscals as postage

In 1955 the Royal Government of Bhutan regularized the dispatch of mail from various government offices at intervals of five days, and placed it on a monetary footing because the system was being stretched thin through growing private use for personal mail. The fiscal revenue stamps, which had been introduced the year before, had to be used as proof of pre-payment for the services, except that mail that pertained to the King, was permitted to be carried without these stamps affixed. This mail runner system is colloquially referred to as the "unstoppable wheel" and philatelically as the Dzong Dak system (dak means 'post' or 'mail' in Hindi).cf. Allied Chambers Transliterated Hindi-Hindi-English Dictionary, p. 161, Allied Publishers, New Delhi/Mumbai 1993:

The system existed mostly for Bhutan domestic purposes (including mail to Bhutanese exclaves near Mount Kailash (Tibet), to Bhutan House at Kalimpong, India as well as to the Bhutan Trade Agent at Lhasa). To foreign destinations, mail matter prepaid in Bhutan with fiscal stamps was carried by Dzong runners, at first to the Indian post office in Yatung, Tibet and after the hand-over of the Indian postal installations in Tibet to China in April 1955, to the Chinese post office which succeeded the Indian post office there.Aranya Dutta Choudhury, "Status of Postal Services in Bhutan, Sikkim and Tibet in 1951 according to Indian Official Correspondence and the Hand-over of Indian POs in Tibet in 1955", in Postal Himal no. 192, December 2022, p 8

Additional postage of the country operating the post office was affixed for onward carriage.Karl Heinz Michel, Bhutan's Postal System, in: Scott's Monthly Stamp Journal, June 1967 pp 111ff Most of the known covers sent via this route were destined for the Bhutanese representation in Kalimpong, India, known as Bhutan House. However, covers to private people and people c/o the post office in Kalimpong are known, as are covers to more far flung locations in India, Nepal, the UK and the US. A few covers without additional stamps of other countries are known to have made it to their destinations in the US. Generally, on items going abroad, the fiscal stamps appear affixed at the upper left of the dual franked covers, with space left at the upper right where eventually the Indian or Chinese stamps purchased at Yatung were placed, resulting in mixed franking. Some covers have the added postage on the backsides.G.J. Raymond, 'Bhutan New Postal Services Poses Several Questions', reprinted in The Great Wall (Quarterly of the China Stamp Collectors Club of Australasia), vol IV, no.1, October 1959 Although disputed, the Finnish philatelist Iiro Kakko opines that the majority of the known covers sent to Kalimpong appear not to be genuine letters routed through the postal system, but especially produced for the philatelic market.Tshering Tashi, 'When revenue stamps served for postage', Kuensel Online 20 March 2011 (former link 'http://www.kuenselonline.com/2010/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=18776'), also reprinted in Phila Mirror 15 April 2011 http://philamirror.info/2011/04/15/when-revenue-stamps-served-for-postage/; see also: Iiro Kakko, 'Bhutan - Dzong Dak Covers', in: Postal Himal no.85, 1st Quarter 1996, p. 17: http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/postalhimal/pdf/PH_1996_002.pdf

Start of the modern era Plans for issuing Bhutan's own postage stamps as a source of revenue for Bhutan was first suggested to the Bhutanese authorities by Sir Basil John Gould, the British-Indian political officer for Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet from 1936 to 1945.Aranya Dutta Choudhury, "Genesis of Bhutan Postage Stamps, the 1950s Indian Diplomatic Discussion", in Postal Himal no. 191, September 2022, pp 9 – 14 In the mid 1950s this was successfully discussed again with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India, together with plans to join the UPU and the required modern postal system needed for becoming a member of this international organisation. India was willing to assist Bhutan in these stated desires. The need for a modern postal system was accelerated by the start of development programs in Bhutan and the end of its self-imposed isolation in the late 1950s and early 1960s. There was a sizeable increase of correspondence in English and the number of mail items, now also including Indian newspapers and periodicals for the staff managing schools and development projects. The Dzong mail service was not able to cope with the significant increase of mail items and its staff could in general not read English. In the first Five Year Plan launched in 1961 the set-up of a postal service was among the proposed development activities. A Posts & Telegraphs Department was established under the Ministry of Communications and the first regular post office was opened in the border town of Phuentsholing on 10 October 1962, when also the first postage stamps were issued.Royal Government of Bhutan, 2nd Five Year Plan, chapter VIII: Postal Department The decision of the Kingdom to issue postage stamps has been described also as its first assertion of its international personality.Thierry Mathou, 'The Growth of Diplomacy in Bhutan 1961-1991: Opportunities and Challenges', p. 80, in: Michael Aris & Michael Hutt (eds), 'Bhutan: Aspects of Culture and Development', 1994, Paul Strachan-Kiskadale Ltd., Gartsmore, Stirlingshire, Scotland; http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/rarebooks/downloads/Aris&Hutt_Bhutan.pdfsee also Peter Bil'ak, "Little Ambassadors of the Country", in Works that Work, no. 8, 2016-2017 https://worksthatwork.com/8/history-of-bhutan-postage-stamps

Postage stamps and modern postal history

1962–1974: Burt Todd and the Bhutan Stamp Agency A postal system was created with the gradual opening of more post offices and postal agencies. Gradually the postal runners who were plying the off-road routes, would come under the control of the Posts & Telegraphs Department, and no longer be part of the Dzong administration.Royal Government of Bhutan, 2nd Five Year Plan (1966-1971), chapter VIII: Postal Department Foreign mail was routed through India by a bilateral agreement, as only on 7 March 1969 did Bhutan become a member of the Universal Postal Union (UPU)UPU member countries, Bhutan https://www.upu.int/en/Universal-Postal-Union/About-UPU/Member-Countries?csid=-1&cid=47#mb--1 and the Asian-Pacific Postal Union (APPU).UP Restricted Unions, APPU membership countries Bhutan https://www.upu.int/en/Universal-Postal-Union/About-UPU/Restricted-Unions/APPU?csid=3&cid=47#mb-3 The postage stamps were initially designed and printed under an arrangement with Burt Kerr Todd, who also handled their sale to the international market. Burt Todd (1924–2006), an American businessman from Pittsburgh, was instrumental in the start of Bhutan's stamp issuing program. He learned of Bhutan while studying at Oxford University, visited the country in 1951, and became an adviser to the Bhutan government and royal family. He has been credited with being the first American to visit Bhutan although that claim cannot be proven for certain. Already on this first visit Burt Todd was asked by the Bhutanese authorities to explore the printing of their own postage stamps and joining the UPU.Aranya Dutta Choudhury, “Genesis of Bhutan Postage Stamps, the 1950s Indian Diplomatic Discussion”, in Postal Himal no. 191, September 2022, pp 9 – 14 The Bhutan stamp program was set up specifically to raise money for the improvement of Bhutan's infrastructure after the country was refused a loan from the World Bank. Todd set up the Bhutan Stamp Agency in Nassau, Bahamas. He had little grasp of how stamps were marketed through the philatelic trade and therefore relied on unusual designs such as 3D printing to attract publicity.Margalit Fox. Burt Todd, 81, Entrepreneur Who Dreamed Big, Is Dead. New York Times, 7 May 2006. Retrieved 24 January 2013.Burt Todd and the Stamps of Bhutan , Philatelic Database. Retrieved 1 March 2010.Gabe Oppenheim, Postage from the edge, The Washington Post, 26 June 2008.

At first ignored by many collectors, some early Todd stamps have become cult items. He produced the world's first 3D stamps using lenticular printing, relief and sculptural stamps, as well as stamps printed on silk or even steel foil, a set of scented rose stamps, and the famous Talking Stamps, miniature records which could be played on a normal record player.Charles Snee, "From 3-D to CD: innovative firsts found among Bhutanese stamps", in: Scott Stamp Monthly, June 2009, pp-15 & p.32

The focus of Burt Todd on the international market left the P&T Department with too few lower-value stamps for the local mail. On advice of the Indian postal advisor to Bhutan, Dr. K. Ramamurti, P&T issued a series of surcharged stamps released in 1965, which were overprinted at the India Security Press in Nashik. The same printer was used by P&T next year 1966 for the first regular, low value, non-agency definitives with the local theme of Bhutanese dzongs. Another complaint by P&T was that often the Bhutan Stamp Agency designed and printed postage stamps without any or enough discussion or approval.Len A. Nadybal, Bhutan Stamp Agency Problems Revealed, in: Postal Himal no.72, 4th Quarter 1992, pp 64-65: http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/postalhimal/pdf/PH_1992_004.pdf After the death in 1972 of the 3rd Druk Gyalpo, His Majesty Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, a good friend of Todd, one of the changes which took place was the cancellation of the contract of the Bhutan Stamp Agency end March 1974.Nildo Harper, Bhutan - A (continued) Brief Postal History, in: Postal Himal no.52, 4th Quarter 1987, p44: http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/postalhimal/pdf/PH_1987_004.pdfBrian Kuehl,'The Demise of the Bhutan Stamp Agency', in: 'The Kaleidoscope' (Bimonthly Publication of the Bhutan Philatelic Society) vol.1, no.2, July–August 1976, pp 2-4