Early one morning, the late Dr Tan It Koon sent us some pictures of the different varieties of frangipani blooming in his garden. (In Singapore, some people are reluctant to cultivate frangipani in their gardens or use the flowers for ornamental purposes because they associate the white variety of these flowers with funerals and graveyards.)
The pictures that It Koon shared with us triggered my curiosity. Plumeria (named after Charles Plumier, a French botanist) are native to South & Central America. It is the national flower of Nicaragua and Laos. Travellers, explorers, or sailors took the plant along with them and today, you can see them growing, for example, in the Buddhist temples of Laos, the Hindu temples of Bali, and in Hawaiian garlands (leis).
In Buddhism, frangipani symbolises the transient nature of all life. Kodak, the chemical-based photography giant, is an excellent example of this, whether human or enterprise life. In 1991, I attended the “customary” Kodak Hula Show in Waikiki, Honolulu. The iconic show ran in Waikiki for 65 years before shutting down in 2002. This year, the iconic hula show is reborn with a modern twist and a new name—the Kilohana Hula Show.
Vince
Dr Vincent Chong is a retired Professor of Radiology at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
