Club Theme and Logo

"When under sail and fortunes fall, t'is better to drown at sea than return without bounty"

The logo of the Rotary Club of Bugis Junction is derived from a rare artifact superbly handcrafted using clove spice, and is based on the Bugis Pinisi (a Sulawesi Schooner).

According to PP Selwyn, this artifact was selected as a symbol and logo of the Rotary Club of Bugis Junction, as it depicts a Bugis ship under full sail, with its crew hard at work to keep it on course, in its voyage into the future. The piece was purchased at Jakarta in 1968, to ultimately journey to Singapore, where it rests today at Chancery Court.

This artifact piece is a good example of the natural artistry of the Maluku people from Eastern Indonesia, working with just cloves and fishing line. It exemplifies the true artistry and skill of fashioning readily available materials into a work of art. The artifact is a stylised version of Pinisi, having three masts, and a crew of six.

The Bugis Pinisi artifact is constructed painstakingly from dried clove flowers (bunga cengkeh), which is a plentiful but yet valuable product of Eastern Indonesia, especially amongst the Molucca islands, now called Maluku, and Celebes now Sulawesi. This clove spice was traded by the Bugis, and by way of China and the Silk Route found its way to Europe where it became a popular and very expensive spice. Eventually the Portugese discovered the source of the spices at Macassar now Makassar, which then became the main trading centre for spices in the 15th century.

The Bugis Pinisi ship symbolises the brave Bugis, who possessed sailing technology, and with their sailing fleet and navigational skills, sailed to all of the countries of Southeast Asia, trading gold, silks, tin, exotic woods and more importantly spices like Clove, Vanilla, Nutmeg, Cinnamon and Mace.