From the Denver Beacon, 4/17/97

Princess with a Purpose

Local Teacher reveals her Royal Past

By Janna Graber

During the thirty years that Inge Sargent was a German teacher in Boulder, she never spoke about her past.  “I wanted my children to have a normal life here,” she says, “so I didn’t tell people who I was.” 

But now that Sargent, 65, is retired, and her children are grown, she is finally free to talk about her life – and the military regime that killed her first husband, Sao Kya Seng.  

Inge Sargent is a former Burmese princess.  Her first husband, Sya Kya Seng, was prince of the Burmese State of Hsipaw (SEE-paw) from 1954-1962.  Sao was assassinated during a military takeover, and Sargent fled Burma, eventually moving to the States.  Though Sargent has long since given up the trappings of a princess, she vows never to forget the people she served.  The retired teacher divides her time between work as a hospice volunteer, and campaigning for democracy in Burma.  

Growing up in a small town in her native Austria, Sargent never dreamed that she would someday rule in an Asian country.  She was only concerned with the strife in her own homeland.  Sargent was only six years old when the Nazis took over Austria.  She watched as her own mother was arrested three times, and neighbors disappeared forever.  Times were tough after the war finally ended, and Sargent decided to study abroad.  In 1952, Sargent came to Colorado on a Fulbright Scholarship, and her life was changed forever. 

            “I enjoyed living in Colorado, but I spent most of my free time with other foreign students,” Sargent says.  It was at a foreign student party that Sargent met a handsome young man from Burma named Sao Kya Seng.  She was immediately taken with Sao, an engineering student from the Colorado School of Mines. 

Sargent never imagined that the young man was the ruling prince of the Burmese Shan State of Hsipaw.  Sao had decided to conceal his identity because he wanted to live a normal student life while he studied mining and the American political system.  Only the university president knew who Sao really was.   

            “Sao was wonderful,” Sargent says.  “We spent hours talking, and had so much in common.”  Together they took long walks on Lookout Mountain, and explored the sights in Denver.  Eventually, they fell in love. 

The couple wanted to marry in Austria, near Sargent’s family.  But in 1953, Burma and Austria still considered themselves “enemies from WWII”, and the Austrian government refused to give the couple permission to marry.  So Sargent and Sao decided to marry in their adopted home in Colorado. 

            After a small wedding at a friend’s house, Sao completed his engineering degree, and the couple took a short trip to Austria.  From there, they sailed to Burma.  When they finally reached the port in Rangoon, Sargent noticed that hundreds of people had gathered on the dock.  Others floated nearby in brightly colored boats, holding up welcome signs.  “There was a band, and people were tossing flowers,” Sargent remembers. “It looked like a big party for someone important.  I asked Sao whose arrival the people were celebrating.”    

            It was then that Sao told Sargent the truth.  “Inge,” he said gently, “I am the prince of Hsipaw.  These people are celebrating our arrival.  You are now the princess.”  

            Today Sargent still laughs at her response. “I wish you would have told me!” she exclaimed at the time. “I would have worn a different dress!”  Although Sargent was initially hurt that Sao had concealed his identity, she understood his reasons.  “He wanted to be sure I loved him for who he was, not what he was,” she says. 

            From Rangoon, Sao and his bewildered bride traveled 800 miles north to their beautiful palace in Hsipaw.  Sargent immediately began learning both the Shan and the Burmese languages, and worked hard at remembering the names of their 46 servants.  Adjusting to a royal position wasn’t always easy.  “I wanted to have fewer servants, or to at least give them time off, but the staff took that to mean I didn’t value them!” she says.  “Being a princess took some getting used to.” 

            Sao and Sargent were “working” leaders, and felt compelled to give their countrymen a better life.  Sao began implementing all that he had learned at the School of Mines.  He established a mining company to explore the untapped ore deposits nearby, and started a salt company that the area desperately needed. 

            In America, Sao had also come to appreciate freedom of speech and the idea that everyone is equal.  He abolished the practice of servants kneeling before him, gave his rice paddies away to the farmers that worked them, and introduced new agricultural methods.  All of this endeared him to his people, but angered the Burmese military.   

            “Sao was a man of great principle, and no one could corrupt him,” Sargent says proudly.  “But ultimately, it was his stand for what was right that made him a threat to the military.”  The Burmese Army had begun to show a heavier presence in the area, but Sao continued working on his reforms. 

            By now, Sargent and Sao had two little girls of their own – Kennari and Mayari.  Each child had her own nanny, but Sargent still kept very busy.  Like her husband, she also desired to serve her adopted people.  After learning that the infant mortality rate was 75 percent, she began searching for ways to help.  She established a birthing clinic, but many babies still died from malnutrition after they had been weaned.  So Sargent obtained milk powder for the mothers to sprinkle on rice porridge, and showed them that oranges and vegetables were healthy to eat.  “My own children were the example.  Sometimes 40 or 50 villagers would gather to watch while I fed the girls.  Eventually the villagers learned that these foods were good for them.” 

            There was also a need for a good school nearby, and Sargent established a trilingual school for the area children.  (Her own children were raised speaking four languages; Sargent speaks eight.) 

            For eight blissful years, Sargent lived as Mahadevi (princess) of Hsipaw.  The young couple lived happily with their daughters, and the country was making progress.  But the fairy tale was not to last. 

            Sao had begun talking with other local leaders about democratic reforms and often spoke up in the parliament.  This angered the Burmese military, which was growing stronger each day.  Sao, who believed in democracy, only stood in the military’s way. 

            In 1962, while Sao was away attending parliament meetings, the military staged a coup under the leadership of General Ne Win.  All parliament members were arrested, and put in jail.  Sao had left parliament a day earlier to visit a sister who was dying of cancer, and didn’t know about the coup.  But the military arrested him at a roadblock, and Sao was never seen again. 

The military surrounded the palace compound where Sargent waited, very worried, for word on her missing husband.   Sargent repeatedly confronted the military generals for word on her husband’s fate.  But they admitted nothing. 

            Eventually a note was delivered that Sao had smuggled out from his tiny prison cell.  “I am being held up in an army lockup,” he wrote.  “Hope to see you soon.” 

            But Sargent and the girls never saw their beloved Sao again.  Conflicting reports came back to Sargent, and she dared to hope.  Then word came through messengers and eyewitnesses that Sao had been killed.  Again, Sargent confronted military leaders, even risking her own life to drive to meet with a high-ranking general, but they gave her no information. 

            For two years, Sargent and her two young daughters, aged 3 and 6, lived under house arrest.  Sargent was accused of being a CIA spy, even though she didn’t know what the CIA was.  Her belongings were confiscated; all telephone calls were monitored, and her mail was taken.  

            Eventually, she was told that she could leave Burma, but that her daughters could not go with her.  Sao had once told Sargent that if anything happened to him, and he did not return, that she and the girls should flee the country.  He advised her to go first to Vienna, and then back to Colorado where they had met and been so happy.  Sargent began plotting her escape. 

            Sargent still had her Austrian passport, but the girls had none.  Time after time, she implored the Austrian ambassador to add the girls to her passport.  But since it was illegal, the Ambassador refused.  Months went by, and Sargent was growing desperate.  Two European friends went on Sargent’s behalf to demand Austrian assistance in the matter.  Miraculously, the girls’ names appeared on the passport. 

            Sargent and her two daughters fled with only three suitcases.  She had to leave all jewels, and money behind.  It wasn’t until their airplane left Burmese airspace that the trio knew they had made it out successfully. 

            After a two-year stay in Austria, Sargent returned to Colorado, where she determined to make a good home for her small children.  She and the girls scraped by on what little money they had, and Sargent went to school to obtain a teaching certificate.  Even as a single mother, she crammed 60 credit hours into one year. 

            Eventually Sargent began teaching German at a Boulder junior high school, and later transferred to Fairview High School.  In 1968, she met and married Boulder resident Howard (Tad) Sargent, who later adopted her girls. 

            Sargent feels blessed to have met and married a wonderful man who is supportive of her Burma memories and respectful of her first husband.  “Tad is the one who encouraged me to write down my life experiences, and to confront my past,” Sargent says. 

            Sargent’s story is written in her book, Twilight over Burma, My Life as a Shan Princess, (University of Hawaii Press.)  “Before I wrote the book, I used to have nightmares of running with my two little girls while bullets flew past us,” Sargent says.  But since finishing the book, the nightmares have ended. 

            Writing about Burma has stirred up Sargent’s passion and memories of her former life there.  She has vowed to speak out on behalf of the country she left behind.  Sargent donates all profits from the book to Burmese refugees, and has become a public speaker on the human rights abuses in Burma. 

“I have to tell people what’s going on there,” she states.  “The same military dictatorship that killed my husband is still in power, and still oppressing the people.”  Burma, which the military renamed Myanmar in 1989, supplies over 60% of the heroin that comes into the United States, and is one of the world’s largest producers of opium.  “Americans think that what happens in Burma doesn’t effect them, but it does,” says Sargent.  “These are the drugs that come into our country!” 

            Sargent believes that she is of one mind with Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman that the Burmese people democratically elected as leader in 1990.  The military, however, disallowed the election, and placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.  “She is still not allowed to leave her house, but she continues to be an inspiration and leader to her people,” says Sargent.  Suu Kyi, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has asked other governments not to do business with Burma.  This, Suu Kyi believes, is the only way to pressure the Burmese military dictatorship for change. 

            For the past several years, Sargent has joined Suu Kyi in calling for American businesses to withdraw from doing business in Burma.  “Every dollar that is invested in Burma goes into the pockets of the military.  It does not trickle down to the everyday person,” Sargent says.   

            Sargent also states that “in any given day, 800,000 people will be doing forced labor in Burma for the benefit of the military government.  The people have no rights or freedom in Burma,” she says. 

            So far, many have heard Sargent’s message.  In December 1996, the City of Boulder joined the growing list of cities that have passed ordinances stating they will not do business with companies who do business in Burma.  The State of Massachusetts has also passed a similar resolution.  Several multi-national companies have already pulled out of Burma (Myanmar) in response to actions like these.  

            “Regimes like the one in Burma can’t last forever,” says Sargent.  “As long as there are people who desire something better, then there is always a chance for change.”

Sao Kya Seng had high hopes for his country, and Inge Sargent wants people to remember what her husband did.  She plans to continue in his footsteps, committed to helping the people who once crowned her princess.