The very next day, British troops marched into Mandalay Palace to demand the unconditional surrender of King Thibaw, the last king of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma and the last in Myanmar history. Thibaw, along with his two wives and their young daughters, was exiled to the remote town of Ratnagiri in India, ending the dynasty’s 103-year reign.
What happened to the family during the 30 years that followed, however, has remained something of a mystery ever since, as the stories of the young princesses and their descendants have been buried by the sands of time. Until, that is, Indian author Sudha Shah – inspired by Amitav Ghosh’s historical novel The Glass Palace – spent eight years uncovering them, meticulously piecing together fragments of their forgotten stories for her 2012 book The King in Exile: The Fall of the Royal Family of Burma. (Courtesy of Myanmar Times)
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