Book Review: Twilight Over Burma, by Inge Sargent
A review of Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess by Inge Sargent - the true story of an Austrian girl who became a Shan princess in Burma.
Title: Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess Author: Inge Sargent Publisher: University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, Hawaii Length: xxiv + 216 pages Year of publication: 1994 Price: approximately USD 5
My first book of the year, Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess, by Inge Sargent.
A true story. The book was published by University of Hawai'i Press in 1994. A film was made under the same title in May 2016 -- it was banned in both Myanmar and Thailand.
In 1951, Inge Eberhard, a young woman from Carinthia, Austria, received a Fulbright scholarship from the United States Government to study at the University of Denver, Colorado. One evening at a dinner party, she met Sao Kya Seng (1924-1962), a student at the Colorado School of Mines
, University of Denver, who hailed from Hsipaw, Shan State, Burma (now Myanmar).
In early January 1954, they returned to Burma aboard the SS Warwickshire. Upon arriving in Hsipaw, Sao Kya Seng was reinstated as the Prince of Hsipaw in 1959, and Inge Eberhard became the Princess of Hsipaw, taking the new name Nao Sang Thusandi.
He was arrested in 1962, following the military coup led by General Ne Win.
In 1966, Inge moved to the United States. She went on to establish an organization focused on assisting refugees from Burma, and she is still regarded by the Shan people as their Mahadevi.
Bontokaddopepe, February 5, 2017