SINGAPORE: An orchid hybrid was named in honour of Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on Thursday (Dec 1).
Papilionanda Aung San Suu Kyi – a purplish looking variety – joins the more than 200 orchids named after dignitaries to date.
The Nobel laureate is on a three-day visit to Singapore, at the invitation of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Ms Suu Kyi first visited Singapore in September 2013, when she was the chairperson of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy.
Since 1956, many heads of states who visit Singapore have been presented with orchid hybrids that are named after them. According to NParks, orchid diplomacy “serves as a gesture of friendship to promote goodwill between Singapore and other countries”. It also “plays an important role in building bilateral ties”, it added.
The Papilionanda Aung San Suu Kyi, a purplish looking variety of the orchid hybrid (Photo: Xabryna Kek)
Other dignitaries who have had orchids named after them include the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon and the late former South African president Nelson Mandela.
Ms Suu Kyi was earlier hosted to breakfast by ESM Goh Chok Tong at the Shangri-La Hotel on Thursday. She will later call on Acting President J Y Pillay, at the Istana before hosted to lunch by DPM Teo Chee Hean. In the evening, Ms Suu Kyi, alongside Mr Lee, will attend the opening ceremony of ACM’s “Cities and Kings: Ancient Treasures from Myanmar” exhibition.
