via the Irrawady, 07 February 2023: Not archaeology related, but may be of interest to some readers. The obituary of an Austrian-born Shan princess Inge Eberhard who passed away in February 5.
Inge Eberhard, who later became Sao Nang Thu Sandi and the princess of Hsipaw, first met Sao Kya Seng in Denver, Colorado, where both of them attended university in the early 1950s. They fell in love and were married in March 1953. Inge thought that the man she had married was a mining engineer, but when they sailed to Burma and arrived at Yangon’s port, she was startled to see a huge, cheering crowd who had come to welcome them home. It was only then that Sao Kya Seng revealed that he was, in fact, the prince of Hsipaw. At his own request, his princely status not been revealed by the rector of the university in Denver. “I wanted to make sure you married me for the right reasons,” Sao Kya Seng smilingly explained as Inge looked at him in bewilderment.
On November 2, 1957, at the palace in Hsipaw, the young couple was officially installed as Saohpalong [Great Lord of the Sky] and Mahadevi [Celestial Princess] of Hsipaw. Aage Krarup-Nielsen, a Danish writer who visited Hsipaw in the late 1950s, wrote in his book The Land of the Golden Pagodas that “it was at first somewhat of a shock for many local people to get a young European lady as their princess…but before long, their reserve melted and their Mahadevi today is admired by the entire people of Hsipaw, who regard her as one of their own.”
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