I have been looking for surviving members of her family, but was unable to find them.
She was a committed Burma activist, she really did support Aung San Suu Kyi with her last breath.
"Taw" means 1. a royal epithet, such as "Her Royal Highness"
as well as 2. "wonderful, discreet, talented, brilliant, hard working, disciplined, dignified, great in every way, extraordinary"
The man in the tan jacket is the late poet laureate of Burma, Tin Moe. His poem was on the word "taw" and how it suited her.
Taw was a great grandniece of the last king of Burma, Thibaw, through her great grandaunt, Pakhangyi Supaya, sister of Theebaw, who married the Hsipaw Prince of the Shan States after the British exiled Theebaw and his immediate family to Ratnagiri in India. At the same time, they brought Zafar Shah from Dehli to die in exile in Burma. Good at that kind of thing, the Brits. (See William Dalrymple, The Last Emperor of India)
The other royals stayed behind in Burma and adapted to the colonial regime and the new order as best they could.
Taw's family was based in Maymyo, the hill station W of Mandalay, the former capital during the monarchy.
I found this video as I was researching a book about the royals and commoners who have worked for democracy in Burma.
Dear Taw did not live to see any of it.
She is wearing white because the royalty of SE Asia wears white as a sign of mourning.
This is the first time I have seen a picture of her after the cancer struck.
I am so sad that many of these LA-based Burmese activists have died, including Tin Moe, Ko Lat (whom Taw used to talk about all the time "Ko Lat will help us with this, with that," Naw Louisa Benson, Karen leader--
RIP.
Kyi May
Kyi May Kaung
Words Sounds and Images
Words Sounds and Images
