In anticipation of sunsight at Bellevue, from 6am, distant thunder resonated as if to remind of global conflicts perhaps from Ukraine or Gaza, while we felt for a better shared world as inspired by Bucky. The informal gathering of friends came to inaugurate a new Dymaxion Big Map at the panoramic lawn of Bellevue on Penang Hill anticipating the new dawn whatever the weather. At 6.35am it began to drizzle as predicted by weather forecasts, recalling the realism of rain experienced before, as others arrived including my niece Kuei Ying and her daughter Phek Shaan, son-in-law Wei Kiat and daughter Sophie, with her violin, (later persuaded to play before her great grand uncle, who contributed some critical observations to improve her music!)
At 7am the drizzle intensified as rain to wash our map, while dark clouds hovered without impairing the panoramic view. Up to 9am the rain was unabated as the group had breakfast, before which I Gede Sukerena and I shared accounts of the traditions of Bali, also to explain the umbuls in the view which remind of the Bali, Bellevue and Bucky connections. It remain sunsightless, and despite the mist we gathered around the Big Map, recalling the World Game and global geography, while Tan Weiming made video recordings from his drone above of the memorable happening. (see video recording below)
Later I shared with the group thoughts and concepts for the future of Bellevue Buckyworld as a Trust to presage possibilities in its realisation.
After lunch, the group toured the Bellevue GingerGardens to learn about the native flora and especially the palm and zingiberales collection, including the rare species in the Folia malaysiana dome, the non botanists being persuaded to learn. Notably the population of Alpinia buckiana* were prominent in the Bellevue gardens. *[The new species identified by C.K. Lim and named after Bucky had been mentioned in previous notices, but is currently published taxonomically in the latest issue of Folia malaysiana, Vol. 19]
11 July 2024
On the 11th July, friends had gathered informally to remember the special redolent ambience of Bucky at Bellevue, which had been stimulated by Joo Hock, Jona Pang and Ali Ibrahim from Singapore, joined by William Khoo, Jon Su, Fletcher Ong, Ooi Bok Kim, Chen Yu, Jerry Cheah and wife, Tan Weiming and Khing Chuah – and I Gede Sukerena from Bali – and our young botanists Nabilah , Khaleeda,plus Anuar Isahak from Suriana Botanic Conservation Garden – also Maryam Abdullah and Kev Yeow who were due to come to help on our extensive Fuller archives and chrono photofiles – and to update our website for remembering Bucky. Staff members from Bellevue and Heritage Research were also in attendance: Indran, Anila, Parvathy and others.
In the Campuan Lounge where we converged after our introductory tea, I was impelled to introduce the ersatz or lingering presence of Bucky on his ornate rattan chair, and to share some accounts of our contacts in Bali and Penang when the Campuan meetings transmigrated in 1981 and 1983, with photo albums of the events. Sensing the receptive mood, we played a recording of the poignant music that Bucky and I had shared, when he stayed at my Starpoint home in Singapore. I had asked him to choose what he would like to hear, whereupon he asked me to make the choice. Amazingly he concurred that the choice was one of greatest works of music, and more special to him was that the cellist was Casals, his great friend! The sublime work by Schubert was the Opus 163 String Quintet in C.
Dinner was the occasion for getting really reacquainted, with conversations into the night, while preparations were ongoing on the lawn for the following morning. Indran, Kalam, Anuar, Haikal and helpers worked to lay out the new Dymaxion map in readiness for its launch on Bucky’s birthday.
Messages & News
Joo Hock
“Dear Datuk Seri Lim, Coming to Bellevue, Penang Hill, annually if possible, for the gathering of fellow Buckians, has always been a “look-forward-to” event for me, a celebration of Bucky, his thinking, his philosophy, his ideas and his perspectives. I enjoy it, the informal get-together, the sharings, and the precessional outcomes of making new friends, etc., in a relaxed Natural environment, For me, getting away from the hustle and bustle of urban life, it’s a wonderful Retreat. The humanism in one and all can blossom and flourish, as one takes time to “smell the flowers” in the garden.”
Jona Pang
“Dear Datuk Seri Lim, My first visit to Bellevue was in Nov 1996, seeing some interesting old diagrams, drawings and photos along the corridors & cafe walls, too bad I did not take any photos then. When I first read “Critical Path” in 1999, somehow those old pictures in Bellevue’s corridor came up to my mind and hence my holiday trip to Bellevue in 2003.. My first stay at Bellevue on March 2003 with my parents and sister was in family room no. 2. My father woke up with a giant centipede inside his shoe one morning, luckily for him the centipede did not bite his foot. Interestingly, I am able to stay in room 2 this round, giving me some good memories. In 2003, while having afternoon coffee, a lady guest and me were chatting, when she said aloud, “Any idea who is this gentleman whose photo was in my room?”. (see photo) I got curious. What a big surprise then seeing Bucky’s photo in room 1. I shared a little about Bucky and went out to find all the artifacts I could see in the lobby.. I was very happy lugging back “Synergetics” to Singapore. The late Sng Tong Hai from the Bucky group suggested to me about meeting you since I was travelling to Penang. I was hoping to meet you while at Bellevue in 2003 but we were unable to meet then despite some phone calls. “
“
Ali Ibrahim
“Dear Datuk Seri Lim, The world of Bucky could never have been actualised if l had not gathered, consciously or subconsciously, the little seeds of understanding, through meetings with Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat, since 1985. If l were to go directly to read the selective works of Bucky, which l dare not attempt and never could (but at best only skimmed the surface), it would be mind boggling or a hard nut to crack! A novice (like me) will have to be kind to himself by slowly imbibing the easy facts and taking up a steady learning curve, a bite at a time. Slowly but surely it took me the last nine years, from 12th July 2015 to 12th July 2024 to get closer to Bucky’s thoughts through the process of a warm group listening and discussion. At these ‘Bucky-confluences’, I learned that you don’t have to know about the science of Geodesic dome, Dymaxion house, Tensegrity or Synergetics to know the man. Just put yourself in Bucky’s shoes, by sensing what Bucky could be experiencing – in silence – when all alone under a great geodesic roof, contemplating on the 10,000 flow of things, all in the interest of mankind. Buckminister Fuller was indeed a good worker, a genius, a mystic and a friend of the universe – to the awakening call of: ‘Who exactly am l and why on earth am l doing this?’“
Thomas T.K. Zung
As ever in mind of Bucky’s birthday, Thomas sent a note and photos of his day, one at the Fly’s Eye Dome at Crystal Bridges Museu
The Estate of R.Buckminster Fuller
from Jaime Snyder and the Fuller Estate came the poignant video of Fuller’s Last Speech, made in June 1983 – six days before his death to preceded Anne’s. Shirley Sharkey and I had met him in London just a few days earlier, from the 19th to the 22nd June, the events which I have described in the opening chapter of my episodic memoirs: “Confluencing with Bucky”, which will hopefully be in print after edits soon.
Courtesy The Estage of R. Buckminster Fuller
Transcript of the video
Audience Questioner 1: If you knew this was your last few hours on this planet Earth: What would you be doing? Bucky: [Laughs] Darling, I never ask myself such questions. [Audience Laughs, Applause] Audience Questioner 1: I’m asking! Bucky: So I don’t have any hypotheticals like that.
Audience Questioner 1: What message would you… Bucky: I hope up to the last second I’m here, I’ll be doing what I’m doing now with you. [Audience Applause]
Audience Questioner 1: If it were your last day, what would be your message to us? What would be the message you would want to leave for us? Bucky: Darling, number one, I don’t do anything really about me. I started, as I said, 56 years ago. I’m seeing what a little individual who, penniless, unknown, might be able to do effectively—was there something inherent in an individual?.. That was not in the nation; that was not In politics; that was not in big business? What could the individual do is I’m an experiment to see what the little individual could do, and I never forget I’m a little individual. The good news about me is that I am an average, healthy human being. I did have very good luck in getting that exposure to generalized generalization through the Navy. That was extraordinarily good fortune, but at any rate, I don’t do anything… People often ask me—I really have many, many newspapers—what do you want to be remembered for? I say: I don’t want to be remembered. I’m not doing what I do to be remembered. I do hope the… what I’ve been able to discover and get out on paper and printed will be read and will be… the significance will be appreciated. I hope that’s… but I don’t care about appreciating me doing it. I want the people to appreciate the significance of it—so they’ll act that way. [Applause, Scene Change]
Peggy: I wanted for you to share with them what you shared with me at lunch: is the thing you say before you lay down every time… I was so touched by that, I think these people would really appreciate hearing that. Bucky: I think Peggy, I’d like to mention when you first sat down, I told you that I had been on this terrific… physically trying schedule. And it wasn’t just crossing the Atlantic, things like that. They were occasions when people I was speaking to might make some difference, you know. And, so I felt responsibility all the way. But any rate, I’ve been traveling and speaking so much recently that I was terr—really, terribly tired. Last night I was so tired I really couldn’t sleep: probably sometimes when you’re really tired you can’t. And I arrived here this morning, feeling really—my heart was palpitating—I had a, I’m sorry, to say my first experience with something like that going wrong in about two weeks ago in Boston. I was coming up out of the subway, the Park Street there, and the escalator stopped. And it was 30 feet. In other words three stories high. And there was an iron gate, one way gate, and people were piling in behind me wanting to get up this thing. So I felt compunction to try to get out of their way as fast as I could. So I worked terribly hard, pulling myself up that escalator, and I got to the top and crossing Tremont street, and I began to… And luckily, I had a young engineer with me. And I said, I, I think I’m going passing out here. And they just—and I did pass out and they got me onto a bench in the park. And next thing when I came to, they said they had an ambulance from the Massachusetts General Hospital and they check my heart and everything said, “You seem to be pretty good. You might as well go over to the hospital to have a check up while we have the ambulance right here.” So I did. [Audience Laughter] And the uh young doctor was a very very good one, in the Massachusetts they gave me electrocardiograph a number of things and he said “What’s name your doctor?” I said Doctor Pocock in Los Angeles. So he called Pocock and he told him what the symptoms and everything he had. And they both agreed that’s perfectly alright for me to go on out. At any rate, I’m still shocked by the event where I passed out. Right in the street—luckily I had a friend with me. Anyway. I began, when I came today, I was really feeling like that was almost imminent I wondered, “Am I going to pass out in front of these people?” No, I can’t tell you, I really my heart was beating hard, having a hard time to get enough breath. And so I was really very apprehensive. And when we met at lunch, I told you I felt as if I was 10 years old again. There’s something very mysterious that goes on. I’ve spoken probably, you know, publicly several, several thousands of times, large audiences and something happens very strangely: the audiences give you strength. If we really are understanding something together. Something very, very mysterious about this, but I am right now feel like a 10 year old again. Something’s actually happened to me anyway, that’s what I talked to Peggy about. Then we had my grandson had arranged things beautifully, and Ron, so that if we finished and they had a couch all waiting for me to lie down, and I can go to sleep in a great hurry. [Audience Laughter] No, my wife tells me I get to sleep in 30 seconds after lying down. I don’t know what it was today, but you were sitting there.
Peggy: About that. [Audience Laughter] Bucky: Anyway, I stood up beside you and I said, Peggy, I’d like to tell you, whenever I’m going to lie down or to take a nap, even sitting in a chair—whenever I’m going to go to sleep, let go, I always say, “Yours, dear God, is all the glory. I have absolute faith and trust in you. Period.” [Scene Change] Bucky: Last night, I think I said I didn’t sleep very well. I kept seemingly seem as if I thought I might be… Are we both supposed to die at the same time as some mystery going on? Maybe it’s so. I’m sure everyone of you had some very extraordinary experiences that can never be classified as probability. I’m not going to talk about the ones that I have had, but I really have had many and I’m sure you have, where it goes way beyond coincidence. That Nature has some kind of periodicities, of waves of things that go through many times when she has them very tightly in phase with moon, new moons or whatever it may be, things, certain special things. But come back to why we’re here today: Integrity Day. The thing about wonderful human beings and whatever we are doesn’t really die. But this particular experiment: don’t forget we really are in question. Are we really going to carry on with our integrity? And I’m meeting so many human beings around the world. Literally been invited—I’ve been around the world 50 times, never as a tourist, always doing some kind of a job. I’ve been invited and had appointments over five-hundred and fifty universities and colleges around the world. So enormous experience with human beings. And… Obviously, there are many things I’ve said to you tremendously familiar with the great set of changes going on. But you often have—you can really have a miscarriage here very easy. I think we’re breaking through into a completely new relationship to Universe. I think we had to have the customs we had—I don’t rue anything. People often ask me, How would you like to redo your life? I wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t know anybody that’s made so many mistakes and that’s the only reason I know so much. [Audience Laughter and Clapping] And that brings me back, and people do ask me, What do you think the most important discovery ever you made? And I said, The importance of truth. Wow. So, darling, beautiful people, I feel you very deeply. I feel you must feel with me and able to appreciate when I tell you about other experiences I’m having like this. I think humanity does have a good chance of passing this examination. I think we went by the great crisis at the time of the Falklands. I don’t want to tell you get into complex of why I say that. But I think we did. The question about whether you’re going to use a bomb… 90% of humanity lived north of the equator. The 10% who live south of the equator live very close to the equator. The Falklands were a thousand miles away from anybody. A place where bombs just would have nothing to do with it. And there was a military trial there where, as whether the United States could protract taking oil from the Arabia 14,000 miles around Africa to Europe. And found out they couldn’t. That’s why the Europeans suddenly joined up with the Russian pipeline. There was a very enormous break in national politics that occurred in that moment. Never going to be really spelled out too clearly for you, but I think we’ve actually gone through the by the first point of tendency to really try out the bomb. And found it was not going to work in that kind of instance, alright. I know we have the option. I know we have the capability to destroy ourselves. I also have known enough human beings to, really, be weighted on the side—I think it’s touch and go, but I think we’re going to make it. But don’t let up. Don’t let up. Or we won’t make it. Keep at your integrity more than ever in all your life before. So thank you, darling people. [Audience Applause / Standing Ovation] I’d like to say, I don’t take that personally. I’m terribly excited by what you did because it tells me you understood me. That’s what we really care about. So I thank God for that.
[Audience Applause / Standing Ovation]
Painting by I Ketut Tagen
I had been Bali several times since last July, where the Canangsari tensegrity dome is being remembered by the community, also the significance of Fuller and our Campuan meetings – and our relationship with the Peasant Painters of Penestanan.
Sadly, one of the most notable, I Ketut Tagen (born 31 December 1945) has died (mercifully after a prolonged illness).By happenstance I had been visiting him to help purvey his last paintings, and happened to be in Bali on 6 October 2023, when his cortege was on the way to the burial ground. The geometry of the geodesic dome had impacted on him (and also I Wayan Pugur) and significantly his painting has been acquired by the Singapore Art Museum.
Back to the living. Antares Maitreya has attended previous meetings at Bellevue, unable to come this year. Recently I met him and his Temuan wife Anoora at his tribalish longhouse. He has allowed me reveal who he was before he metamorphed into Antares, perhaps via “Mothballs” (a hint to discover this hyper versatile Malaysian unqiue character traceable via his websites and activities).
Here we introduce his previous persona as Kit Leee (who once performed as Snoopy in a Charlie Brown production!). More significantly he has to be revealed as a grandson of Buckminster Fuller (Jaime and Alexandra please note) – as per the indubitable 1975 inscriptions reproduced here!
Environmental contemplations on Bucky’s birthday at Bellevue Lim Chong Keat, 12/13 July 2023
In the context of world strive and economic inequalities, we might cite Shakespeare: “Oh what fools these mortals be”, and agonise over the idealism of Bucky’s incentive for “the world for you and me, not you or me”. Climate change has occupied much concern – yet oblivious to astrophysical mutations that may yet doom planet earth.
I may be allowed these ruminations as I turn 93, just overcoming non-viral debilations with the help of traditional herbal prescriptions, efficacious to enable me to continue work on the legacy of my friendship with Bucky, and to advance my memoirs “Confluencing with Bucky”, drafts completed for editing and the challenging selection of relevant photos yet to be limited for publication. In the process, it has become a priority to archive the extensive photographic material and my collections of original inscriptions by Bucky. This leads to the intention to establish the “Bellevue Buckyworld Trust” to which I would endow the Fuller collection – and to make plans for its conservation and future. It may here be timely to reveal that I have been designing architectural concepts for the future of the geomantic site of Bellevue on Penang Hill, a legacy which could be shared globally by those who appreciate the cosmic history of Bucky’s connection.
On July 11th and 12th this year, no confluence has been planned, also as no others have offered initiatives to organize a gathering here. From previous attendees, we had vibes from Winfred Khoo and Maryam Abdullah, who was in Makkah. Only Kev Yeow planned to come to help on the archives, and it fell to the two of us to imbibe the moods of the environment which had been laced the days before with thunderstorms and heavy downpours, reminding us about last year’s “Realism of Rain.” Although I overslept and missed the sunrise, Kev diligently recorded the views, also observing the moon and Jupiter in the predawn cloudless sky. I then complemented with later photos. As we know, our antipodal location is ahead of New England, and July 12th there would begin around noon for us. Reflecting on the absence of this
In town Kev and I spent time on the photo archives and updates for this website. As he went back to Bellevue after 7pm he was rewarded by an amazingly spectacular rainbow over our geodesic dome at sunclipse … surely a truly cosmic message for all, which will be shared in our website.
Ever faithfully, Jaime Snyder and the Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller sent out birthday remembrances with two significant links to the Bucky Archives at Stanford (https://www.buckminsterfuller.net/resources/research-at-archive.html) and a nostalgic tour of the Fuller office in Philadelphia (https://youtu.be/e3hQWDY19Gs), recorded in 1983 shortly after Bucky’s death. I surfed the latter, glad to see Jaime and Allegra looking over memorabilia, followed by further revelations by Shirley, Kiyoshi and Amy about the trophies and the chronofiles – which became a prompt for our archives here to relate to the Fuller collections at Stanford and elsewhere as to material that may not be there.
Relevantly, as I have been time travelling over the same period, I made observations to augment the video tour, firstly noting the RIBA Gold Medal for Bucky, and the Medal of Freedom which was first communicated to Bucky at our 4th Campuan meeting in Penang in February 1983. Allegra and Jaime showed the Indonesian collections of three-way weave baskets – and a “Penang lawyer” walking stick acquired by Bucky, an item made from the endemic palm, Licuala acutifida from Penang. I noted with interest that according to Kiyoshi, Bucky was a keen photographer and his collection numbered some 11,000 images!
There was also a painting by Arie Smit given to Bucky. More interestingly but not mentioned were the colourful naive Peasant paintings from Penestanan hanging on the walls, which had caught Bucky’s eyes, and acquired when he was with us in Bali. These have since been donated to the Centre for Spirituality & Sustainability at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, where the Fuller Dome is located. Coincidentally Kev Yeow had visited there in August 2022 and made photos of the 14 paintings (the one by I Wayan Pugur illustrated above) which recall memories of Campuan and our Balinese artist friends – and “Canangsari”, the bamboo tensegrity dome dedicated to Anne, as in the buckyconfluence logo. The events leading to the dome will be fully recounted in my memoirs about the early meetings convened by Bucky, myself and Austin Coates in 1976 and in 1977 (when we celebrated Bucky’s birthday at the dome).
In viewing the 1983 office tour, I recalled the special gathering about the same time that October, hosted by Porter McKeever at his Pelham home attended by musician and artist friends (including Loh Siew Tuan and Prawat) … and Allegra, Jaime, Alexandra, Ben Eli, Shirley & Bill, Kiyoshi, Amy, Karen – and also Shoji and Tsuneko.
[As a closing note, I would mention and as attached below the nice message that Jaime has contributed, adding to the other two by Shirley Sharkey and Thomas Zung, for “Confluencing with Bucky”, the memoirs yet to be published]
Message for “Confluencing with Bucky” from Jamie Snyder
Bucky in Asia: I am very happy that Lim Chong Keat is publishing a memoir, which will explore, among many aspects of his own work, his longtime friendship with my grandfather Buckminster Fuller. It was of great fortune that Bucky intersected with Lim Chong Keat from 1971 as part of his ongoing circumnavigation of the planet. It was only two years later, that as a young man of 18, I had the opportunity to travel around the world with Bucky on his unceasing travel schedule to universities all over North America, Europe, and Asia. That particular trip took us to meet numerous architects throughout Asia: Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Bali, and India— where I was privileged to sit in on Bucky’s personal meeting with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
As it turned out, I was fortunate to travel with Bucky to Bali a second time. The first trip was where I fell in love with Bali – and came to realise Bucky already had. In 1977 I returned to Bali to participate in the preparation of the second Campuan Conference organised by Chong Keat and Bucky. The longer trip gave me the opportunity to arrive in Bali ahead of Bucky, and have some time to get to know Ubud and Penestanan just a little bit. I was primarily there to assist Bucky, as I had been doing on his travels; still in this case I had the chance to explore and revel in this remarkable place. As it happened I arrived early enough, so I could meet up with then young filmmaker Karen Goodman – who was invited to document the event. Karen, went on to produce the American Masters PBS television special: Buckminster Fuller: “Thinking Out Loud”. I think fondly of the Campuan Conference and its significant contribution in bringing together visionary thinkers to contemplate biggest picture of the changing landscape of Life on Earth, and the challenges she faces – only much more severe at this moment in time. Bucky’s intersection with Chong Keat spawned numerous architectural endeavours and auxiliary projects, and was an important contribution to Bucky’s research into the evolution of humanity on Spaceship Earth. Along with stimulating big thoughts about the possibility of a sustainable and regenerative human engagement with the natural world, Chong Keat was a key figure in bringing Bucky’s “Design Science Revolution” to a new generation of designers and planners
Bucky with attendees of the Campuan 4 meeting at Bellevue in February 1983, when he received news of the Presidential of Freedom, on his last visit to Penang.
Copyright Note: Images from the Buckyworld Collection *bwc series” may not be reproduced without expressed consent
This year we did not intend to hold formal meetings at Bellevue, but in the spirit of the Campuan legacy, asked Maryam Abdullah and Kev Yeow (and his wife Evon) to invite friends to meet informally. A few former attendees inquired if they could join if there were special events organised, but were candidly advised otherwise. Most welcomed was Ramli Ibrahim who turned up with artist Kishore and gardener/photographer Rabby – and eminent journalist Cyril Pereira. Maryam invited her teacher friend Helena Osman – and the legally distinguished Mohamad Ariff Yusof and his microbiologist wife Hakimah.
From Singapore, Ali Ibrahim and Jona Pang sent their apologies; Quek Joo Hock had planned to turn up with his friend Ken Chin, but was himself held back by covid. [“Man proposes, viruses dispose” – a reminder of the sensibility of sparsity as against overcrowding …and commercial exploitation.]
For the occasion, our office and hotel staff were to provide essential services, with Indran mounting a full display of Bucky memorabilia and photos, also with Azim recording the events, all to be noted for appreciation.
On the 12th, at the sunsight moment, the sky was clouded when Ramli appeared, transformed – radiantly nubile to hold sway with his inspired Odissi terpsichorean evocation at the geodesic dome – earlier divining his preference for rain – and indeed, without the sun being sighted, the clouds later obliged by intermittent drizzles – and more over the two days. With the Balinese umbuls fluttering over the panoramic terrace and the dome, we might have been reminded that they are symbolic of Naga and the source of water – symbolic indeed to appreciate rainfall even during monsoon periods, yet with shortages still in water supply in many areas due to poor management, over-consumption and waste. In the context of Penang Hill, where PBA the historic water authority and environmental conservator, deserving perennial appreciation, the Buckian inspiration would remind that so much could be achieved for water security and sharing – if humans would be truly sensible. During the dance by Ramli, the drizzle had abated, but we were to experience much rainfall over the two days, with the sun only sighed briefly on the 13th. The weather moods varied from clear to misty when clouds swirled around Bellevue, on other days below obscuring the city below.
As it rained and rained, the thought occurred: in wonderment about plant and analogously human life, and the eternal saga of deluge or deprivation – and about what is enough to be shared, in “the world for you and me, not you or me”. From Kishore I was to learn that in Tamil: the word for rain is malee, and water tani (as is more commonly known).
Another stray thought: wondering if current generations in Malaysia know about the context and novel by Han Suyin*: “And the Rain my Drink”? Then relatedly, more recently meeting Gary Lit who has published “If the Sky were to Fall”….
Cosmically, on the 13th, the Fuller Estate mailed news of the publication of “The Sense of Significance: the Friendship of Christopher Morley and Buckminster Fuller” written by Louise Morley Cochrane. This brought back my memories of Louise who I had invited to the Campuan Meeting at Emmanuel College in 1995; also of our trip together to the historic Brown (of Glugor, Penang) family home at Longformacus in Berwickshire, where she fell and broke her arm, and had to be rushed to Edinburgh Hospital! Sadly, she passed away in 2012. Her birthday was on the same date as mine, but earlier in 1918.
Significantly, Brian Wong and Jon Su were able to attend, both to be concerned with the future of Bellevue and its Fuller heritage. Brian and others attending were able to savour more intimately the Bellevue ambience and the Buckian legacy from images displayed – and from a preview video of “Remembering Fuller” which the ArtScience Museum in Singapore recorded with me, following their Buckminster Fuller exhibition called “Radical Curiosity”. Brian confided with a preview proof copy of his seminal book “The Tao of Alibaba”, soon to be published, enviably reminding about my tardiness in producing my memoirs, “Confluencing with Bucky,” as yet not too far from final drafts, despite distractions, including the taxonomic recognition of Alpinia buckiana.
On the 13th, Maryam led and recorded the informal and extempore exchanges held at the Campuan Lounge, which was attended later by Shannon Lee and Audrey Kwan from Perak, young articulate friends of Ramli. Cyril further contributed his account of the wide-ranging expressions of personal, local and national concerns – at the place where Bucky’s aura may still linger. The attendees also had a botanical tour of the Ginger Garden & Aviary of Bellevue, and buggy rides around the summit environment of Penang Hill. As an unplanned diversion, some were cajoled into doing garden weeding, to dirty their hands while discovering interesting ground plants in the exercise.
Although the July gathering was to be informal in the Campuan spirit of privacy (with honorics and undue publicity avoided) Sutra Foundation has sent out their Facebook account – as Ramli’s contribution was indeed pivotal and memorable, as before. We decided not to include it under this website. Hopefully viewers may understand the discretion preferred as against over-publicity – to allow a more personal appreciation of the private event and of Bucky, in the Bellevue Campuan context.
Maryam and Cyril have made their accounts of the gathering, which could be circulated to attendees with collated photos to be shared.
Postscript: while we look forward to sunsight daily, some may have seen their last sunclipse. Thomas Zung has just informed that his great friend Robert Curl (born in 1933) died on the 3rd of July. Curl with Richard Smalley and Harry Kroto won the Nobel Prize in 1996 for the discovery of the nanomaterial: Buckminsterfullerene. The name was proposed by Kroto, who had earlier studied Architecture and knew about Fuller’s geodesic domes which carbon 60 resembled. In late 1995, I did invite Kroto (who was at the University of Sussex) to our Campuan meeting at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but he was unable to come. I seem to recall that we had already heard of the recognition of the carbon 60 fullerene since 1985.
Yet another obituary followed in July: in Oxford, Colin Bridger, my Manchester University classmate passed away. He and his wife Ann, also a classmate, were with me in July 1983 visiting Bucky in London, when we went together, also with Shirley Sharkey, to the RIBA. Latest: as further sad news and a coupled funeral, Ann has died on 1sr August.
“Remembering Fuller“
In Singapore, the ArtScience Museum honoured Bucky by tne exhibition “Radical Curiosity – in the Orbit of Buckminster Fuller” from January 22nd ending on July 10th. The Museum invited me to record an interview about my friendship with Bucky in th context of Bali, Singapore and Penang. The recording has now been released on Youtube, and accessible by the link: Remembering Fuller with Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat
Lim Chong Keat, July 2022
Copyright Note: Images from the Buckyworld Collection *bwc series” may not be reproduced without expressed consent
A year after the launching of our website, we observed the antipodal pre-birthday of Bucky at Bellevue to share the updates. Sunsight due at 7.20am was obscured by the rain and cloudy weather, perhaps reflecting the worldwide murkiness awaiting light. Gatherings were not proposed to allow time for meditative contemplation, while clamour abounds proposing solutions to global and local problems.
The prospect from Bellevue slowly unfolds without sunlight , drawing attention to the plants and flora appreciating the weather whatever. We may focus on the terminal inflorescence of the Alpinia species rescued from the wild and flourishing in the grounds – reminding that it is a species that has been incorrectly identified that has to be renamed, overdue as the intent has been delayed over the past years. I plan to publish soon in the revival of the journal Folia malaysiana and to name it *Alpinia buckiana, C.K.Lim, ined. – also recalling my botanical exchanges over the years with Bucky at Bellevue and at Suriana (where other new species are conserved) and where we have made geodesic shade houses – which Bucky called “grown domes”!
*As a taxonomic note for those interested, the species was studied in the field and collected from two locations, in Perak and Perlis, and had been erroneously called Catimbium speciosum, a name now considered to be a synonym of the “Shell Ginger” Alpinia zerumbet, thus now requiring a new name. The author will explain its distinction from another Malaysian species, Alpinia nobilis Ridl. and also from the true Alpinia malaccensis (Burman f.) Roscoe of Ambon and Seram, another name that has been dubiously used for other species found elsewhere in Indonesia and India. Such are the storms in the teacup for botanists!
As the weather unfolds and the environment enlightens with glimmers of sun, fully appearing as ascendent as we rotate…glorious scenically from 9am, encouraging my botanical taxonomy with Hamid our Temiar barefoot botanist to make type specimens and photograph the floral characters needed to confirm the new species, celebrating its conservation at Bellevue.
Over the last year, the concepts and plans for Bellevue as the Buckyworld Trust have been in progress – soon to be made known to supporters as and when its special contribution to the locational and global heritage is appreciated.
To those encouraging my memoirs “Confluencing with Bucky”, the news is that final drafts are at hand for editing and image selections towards publication.
LCK, 12 July 2021.
I met Allegra for the first time in mid-April 1979 in Boston, when we went with Bucky to Neva’s house in Cambridge where there was a grand piano. I recall cajoling Allegra to dance, which she said she would – but only if some one (me?, not Bucky or Neva) would play appropriate music on the piano. For the challenge, and by chance I was carrying the music score, I bravely began sight-reading one of the Satie “Gnossiennes” – and we were rewarded by Allegra extemporising in dance. Memorable!
While the world is being afflicted by viral and other diseases – and pandemics, not only by the mutating coronavirus (with geodesic morphology), the saga of life and death evolves in the context of over-population, over-consumption, inequality and exploitation. Commercialised silver bullets may or may not help, especially not totally proven, whereas the need for comprehensive and effective treatment and alleviation of all lethal diseases and terminal factors remain needed as priority, together other sensible optimum isolative precautions, best observed by community groups, strategising afresh their future regimen for survival beyond myths of “normality”.
In Penang, some who knew Bucky have died from other causes: my old classmate Goh Hock Lye, my elder sister Siew Hwa – and just at 10.26pm, 13 July at the hospital my driver Noh Muhamad, who had been with me in so many botanical expeditions.
Bucky would have alluded to prospects for the future of mankind in the context of “Humans in Universe” and cosmic and geo-astral destiny – leading us to think about species diversity in the survival of the …blessed. Beyond the vanity of societal progress, inexorably we should know that “the ultimate cause of death is life”.
Lck, 14 July 2021.
Copyright Note: Images from the Buckyworld Collection *bwc series” may not be reproduced without expressed consent
Early light and sunsight at Bellevue on Sunday 12 July was auspiciously awesome, blessing the intended launch of our website dedicated to Bucky upon his 125th birthday. A small group of invited friends were present to appreciate the panoramic setting and the invocation dance “Dawning: Resurrection”, a pas de deux inspiredly improvised and performed by the perennial dance maestro Ramli Ibrahim and Wei Jun (to music by Lou Harrison and Henry Cowell).
Selected Images of the occasion are presented to share the Bellevue celebration at sunsight, Malaysian time, the website launch being intended at noon to herald in 12 July* antipodally. [*rescheduled later as buckyconfluence.org for editorial reasons]
Copyright Note: Images from the Buckyworld Collection *bwc series” may not be reproduced without expressed consent
