In fact, Sao Nang Hearn Hkam, Thaike’s third wife, was the last Mahadevi of Yawnghwe; and her exclusion from the museum constitutes only a slightly gentler revision of
Burma’s history than the destruction of the palace at Kengtung and the subsequent building of a new palace in its place.
When the Burmese military seized control of the country on March 2, 1962, they raided Yawnghwe Haw and imprisoned Sao Shwe Thaike, who died some months later in jail. After her husband’s death, Sao Nang Hearn Hkam escaped to Thailand with her five surviving children. Two years later, she helped found the Shan State War Council and the Shan State Army, in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. Visitors will not discover these facts anywhere in the museum.
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Entrance to the Nyaungshwe Cultural Museum |
Those interested in exploring further the history of Yawnghwe Haw and its place in Burmese history can find more substantive information in two books, written from widely divergent perspectives. The Conspiracy of Treasonous Minions within Myanmar Naing-Ngan and Traitorous Cohorts Abroad (Myanmar: SLORC, 1989) contains the only official regime reference to Sao Nang Hearn Hkam as the Mahadevi of Yawnghwe, though the book casts her as a traitor to Burma. Patricia Elliot’s more comprehensive and less biased The White Umbrella (Bangkok: Post Books, 1999) describes extensively the daily life and tumultuous history surrounding the palace and the lives of its residents.
Today, Yawnghwe Haw is quiet. Located at Nyaungshwe, the tourist gateway to Inle Lake, the museum occasionally attracts a foreign visitor willing to pay the US $2 entrance fee. One is more likely, however, to meet young Shan novice monks touring the complex during their school break.
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