Inge Sargent, also known as Sao Nang Thu Sandi, the last Queen Consort of the Shan state of Hsipaw died at her home in Boulder, Colorado at the age of 90, on 5 February.
She was born in Austria on 23 February 1932.
In 1951 she went to study at Colorado Women’s College after winning a Fulbright scholarship.
Whilst studying there she met and fell in love with a Burmese engineering student named Sao Kya Seng and they were married in Colorado on 7 March 1953.
After Sao Kya Seng graduated they returned to Burma. It was only on seeing all the people waiting to greet them in Yangon as they disembarked from their ship that Inge Sargent discovered that her new husband was the Saopha of Hsipaw or Prince of Hsipaw and she became the Mahadevi or Queen Consort of Hsipaw.
The couple went to live in Hsipaw where Inge Sargent became Sao Nang Thu Sandi and learnt to speak Burmese and Shan. She was a dedicated philanthropist, working to improve the lives of people in Hsipaw through various projects like birthing clinics, nutrition education, and a trilingual school.
She was soon accepted by the people of Hsipaw and the royal couple became very popular because of their altruistic work.
They also had two daughters, Sao Mayari and Sao Kennari.
But, in 1962 General Ne Win led a coup that overthrew the Burmese government and both Sao Kya Seng and Inge Sargent were arrested in 1962.
Sao Kya Seng was never seen again and it is assumed that Ne win had him extrajudicially executed in prison. He was the last Saopha of Hsipaw.
Inga Sargent and her two daughters were held under house arrest for two years accused of being CIA spies. On their release they moved to Austria for two years before settling in the US in Boulder, Colorado where Inge Sargent became a high school German teacher and spent the rest of her life.
In 1968 she married Howard "Tad" Sargent, but she continued to work helping people in Myanmar and in 1995 she set up the Burma Lifeline Foundation with Tad to help Burmese refugees in countries surrounding Myanmar. In 2000 she was awarded the International Human Rights Award for her tireless efforts to support ethnic minorities and refugees.
Tad also encouraged her to write her biography and her memoir Twilight over Burma was published in 1994. All profits from the book were donated to refugees who had fled Myanmar and were still living in the border areas. It was also adapted into a film in 2015, also called Twilight over Burma, which was banned in both Myanmar and Thailand.
