The story of how Myanmar’s last monarch, King Thibaw, was unseated by the British and sent with his family to a remote Indian town is well-known both at home and abroad.
But what happened next, as the once all-powerful ruler languished in exile, his family feuded and fell into obscurity, is a far less widely told tale.
Now, more than a century after Thibaw was unseated in 1885, Myanmar readers finally have a chance to hear his full story, after the publication of a local language edition of Sudha Shah’s The King in Exile: The Fall of the Royal Family of Burma.
Win Nywin, the editor-in-chief of Shwe Amyutay magazine and Ray of Light weekly, told the Irrawaddy the authorised translation of the book, originally published in English in 2013, took him two years to complete.
Shah told Coconuts Yangon she hoped the translation would “help bring alive the story of the last king and his family”.
“The reaction to the book in Myanmar has so far been very gratifying. However, it has not been widely read and I’m hoping with the translation that will change.”
Photo: HarperCollins
