Inge Sargent - Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess
Here you can read online Inge Sargent - Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 1994, publisher: Kolowalu Books, genre: Art. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:
Romance novel
Science fiction
Adventure
Detective
Science
History
Home and family
Prose
Art
Politics
Computer
Non-fiction
Religion
Business
Children
Humor
Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.
- Book:Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess
- Author:
- Publisher:Kolowalu Books
- Genre:
- Year:1994
- Rating:5 / 5
- Favourites:Add to favourites
- Your mark:
Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess: summary, description and annotation
We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.
Just married and returning to live in her new husbands native land, a young Austrian woman arrived with her Burmese husband by passenger ship in Rangoon in 1953. They were met at dockside by hundreds of well-wishers displaying colorful banners, playing music on homemade instruments, and carrying giant bouquets of flowers. She was puzzled by this unusual welcome until her embarrassed husband explained that he was something more than a recently graduated mining engineer - he was the Prince of Hsipaw, the ruler of an autonomous state in Burmas Shan mountains. And these people were his subjects! She immersed herself in the Shan lifestyle, eagerly learning the language, the culture, and the history of the Shan hill people. The Princess of Hsipaw fell in love with this remote, exotic land and its warm and friendly people. She worked at her husbands side to bring change and modernization to their primitive country. Her efforts to improve the education and health care of the country, and her husbands commitment to improve the economic well-being of the people made them one of the most popular ruling couples in Southeast Asia. Then the violent military coup of 1962 shattered the idyllic existence of the previous ten years. Her life irrevocably changed. Inge Sargent tells a story of a life most of us can only dream about. She vividly describes the social, religious, and political events she experienced. She details the day-to-day living as a reluctant ruler and her role as her husbands equal - a role that perplexed the males in Hsipaw and created awe in the females. And then she describes the military events that threatened her life and that of her children. Twilight over Burma is a storyof a great happiness destroyed by evil, of one womans determination and bravery against a ruthless military regime, and of the truth behind the overthrow of one of Burmas most popular local leaders.
Inge Sargent: author's other books
Who wrote Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.
Inge Sargent
Darren Shan
Chan Li Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work
Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.
Light
Font size:
↓
↑
Reset
Interval:
↓
↑
Bookmark:
Make
Twilight over Burma
Twilight over Burma
M Y L IFE AS A S HAN P RINCESS
Inge Sargent
With a foreword by
Bertil Lintner
A Kolowalu Book
University of Hawaii Press
Honolulu
1994 University of Hawaii Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
00 99 98 97 96 95 5 4 3 2
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sargent, Inge.
Sargent, Inge.
Twilight over Burma : my life as a Shan princess / Inge Sargent ; with a foreword by Bertil Lintner.
p. cm.
ISBN 0824816234.
ISBN 0824816285 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-8248-6533-7 (e-book)
1. Kya Seng, Sao. 2. Shans (Asian people)Kings and rulersBiography. 3. Sargent, Inge. 4. Shan State (Burma)Politics and government. I. Title.
DS530.8.S45K937 1994
959.105092dc20
[B] 94-17047
CIP
University of Hawaii Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by Paula Newcomb
This book is dedicated to the memory of Sao Kya Seng, the Prince of Hsipaw
(Arthur Lord Lee photo)
C ONTENTS
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I could not have written this book without the loving support of my family: my husband, Tad, whose gentle insistence and encouragement kept the project from faltering; my daughters, Mayari and Kennari, who with my son-in-law, Andrew, strengthened my resolve to tell the story of their father, Sao Kya Seng, and of his people. My heartfelt thanks go to them.
I am grateful to my mother, Elfriede Eberhard, for saving my letters from Hsipaw, which helped to refresh my memory. I wish to thank the members of my writers group, Kirby, Kay, and Robert, for their constructive comments as the work progressed. Kate Clanchie provided helpful editorial comments at an early stage, and I am grateful to her.
This publication would not have been possible without the invaluable help of Bob Pritzker and Charles Goodman; I shall always be indebted to them. I also wish to thank Bill Hamilton of the University of Hawaii Press for his interest in my story.
Last but not least, I must express my gratitude to the brave men and women in various parts of Burma, and to compassionate people elsewhere, who rendered assistance in our most desperate hours. It would not be prudent to name many of them here, but they know who they are. I shall never forget them.
K EY P ERSONS A PPEARING IN T HIS B OOK
A FEW NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT PEOPLE STILL LIVING.
S AO K YA S ENG (sao-cha-SENG). Saophalong, Prince of Hsipaw, hereditary ruler of the Shan state of Hsipaw. Often referred to as Sao.
T HUSANDI (TOO-sahn-dee). Austrian-born wife of Sao Kya Seng; Mahadevi of Hsipaw, also referred to by her Austrian name, Inge, or Sao Mae (Royal Mother).
M AYARI (MY-uhr-ree) AND K ENNARI (KAY-nuhr-ree). The daughters of Sao and Thusandi.
M OEI (MWAY). Shan maid and confidante of Thusandi.
N AI N AI (NIGH-NIGH) AND P A S AW . Shan nannies.
K AWLIN. Shan butler.
B UKONG (boo-KONG), M EHTA (MAY-ta), Z INNA, A I T SENG, AND B A A YE. Shan employees at the East Haw.
N ANDA. Shan cousin of Sao Kya Seng; Mahadevi of previous prince.
U H TAN (oo-TAHN). Chief minister of Hsipaw State.
S AO K HUN L ONG. Brother of Sao Kya Seng.
N ANG L AO. Wife of Sao Khun Long.
A MBASSADOR AND M RS. K OLB OF A USTRIA. Headquartered in Karachi.
P ROFESSOR H ANS H OFF. Austrian psychiatrist.
U K HANT. Burmese friend; brother of UN Secretary-General U Thant.
B O S ETKYA (Boh-SET-cha). Burmese politician and businessman. One of the Thirty Comrades.
U N U (oo-NOO). Prime minister of the Union of Burma. Deposed and imprisoned by Ne Win in 1962.
M ABEL. British-born wife of Sao Hkun Hkio (sao-kuhn-CHOH); Mahadevi of Mongmit State.
P AULA AND B ETTAN. Helpful friends in Rangoon.
N E W IN (nay-WIN). Burmese Army general; leader of 1962 coup dtat and dictator of Burma since 1962.
M AUNG S HWE (Mawng-SHWAY). Burmese Army colonel in charge of Eastern Command (Shan states).
T UN O UNG. Burmese Army colonel in charge of Hsipaw State.
C OLONEL L WIN. Head of Military Intelligence (MIS).
BURMA
Showing cities, towns, and locations mentioned in the text
F OREWORD
On a sunny summer afternoon in June 1966, a small Volkswagen Beetle made its way toward Schloss Laudon, a baroque castle operated privately as a luxury hotel in the 15th Bezirk, or district, of Austrias capital, Vienna. The iron gates to the estate were closely guarded by the Austrian police, who let the vehicle pass, since it carried official diplomatic identification from the Royal Thai Embassy in Vienna.
The Beetle chugged along the gravel road through the neatly trimmed garden that surrounded the castle and came to a halt right outside the building. A young European woman, her hair tied in a bun in Southeast Asian fashion, got out of the car and climbed the marble steps to the castles main entrance. Two Eurasian girls, ten and seven years old, clutched her hands. They boldly entered the castles round entry hall, which was furnished as an elegant lobby with rococo furniture and dark wooden panels.
The hotel guests, all of whom were Asians, stared in round-eyed wonder at the intruders. Still holding her two daughters by the hand, the lady quickly surveyed the hotel guests, spotted her target, and approached a woman in the party whom she addressed in fluent Burmese. I want to see the general.
The Burmese lady glanced up a flight of stairs leading to a balcony on the second floor. The European ladys eyes followed hers, and she saw a tall Asian man on the balcony, hurriedly turning behind the balustrade and disappearing through one of the doors, which he resolutely shut behind him.
Please be seated and have a cup of tea, the Burmese lady nervously suggested.
No thank you. I have come here to discuss personal matters with the general, the other lady replied, holding her head high as the two little girls clung shyly to her hands.
Er, hes resting. Hes not so well, you see, the Burmese lady replied hesitantly.
Not well? He seemed perfectly fit to me when he ran into that room upstairs, the European lady fired back.
The tall man who had vanished into the room on the second floor was, in fact, Burmas then military dictator, General Ne Win, who had seized power in a coup dtat four years before. The Asian lady was his wife, Khin May Than, who was also known as Kitty Ba Than, and they were on a visit to Vienna, where the general was receiving treatment for an undisclosed mental disorder. Accompanied by an entourage of nearly fifty high-ranking army officers and military intelligence agents, they had rented the entire Schloss Laudon while Ne Win went for daily consultations with one of Austrias most noted and respected psychiatrists, Dr. Hans Hoff.
The stalwart European lady who so boldly confronted the top echelons of Burmas ruling elite was Inge Eberhard. She was better known as Sao Nang Thusandi by the subjects of one of the most prosperous of the Shan states of northeastern Burma, in the valley of Hsipaw along the old Burma railway from Mandalay to Lashio. Her husband, Sao Kya Seng, had been the last saopha , or prince, of Hsipaw, and the two girls who were with their mother in Schloss Laudon in June 1966 were the young princely couples daughters, Mayari and Kennari.
Light
Font size:
↓
↑
Reset
Interval:
↓
↑
Bookmark:
Make
Similar books «Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess»
Look at similar books to Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.
Darren Shan
Chan Li Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Reviews about «Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess»
Discussion, reviews of the book Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.