News – Great Lords of the Sky is now available!

Although Shan States is geopolitically in Burma the Shans (Tais) are different in their origin and language from the other groups in that country. The Tais possessed a social organisation of a feudal type, which existed for many generations.
Shan States is made up of many different principalities or “mongs”. A mong was looked after by a hereditary prince/chief, called Saohpa or Sao Hpa, meaning “Lord of the Sky”. Originally each Saohpa completely governed his mong but this changed during the British colonial period, but the Saohpas were still allowed a fair amount of monarchical powers.  The military coup in 1962 totally dissolved this chieftain system, when many of them were incarcerated or secretly executed.

Sao Sanda’s Latest Book is Available

Great Lords of the Sky is now available! It contain a deeper and well-researched documentation of the Saohpas. This is written by Sao Sanda, the eldest daughter of the last Saohpa of Yawnghwe. You can buy the hardcover version at cost from Lulu – use this link to buy.

This is a support website for the book. It is aimed at giving a taste of the book to anyone interested and wishes to get a quick overview of the contents containing information, photographs and family trees of the Shan Saohpas. Due to the changes in political circumstances, the families of the Saohpas have emigrated far and wide, though some remain in Burma. Hopefully, the website will provide those offspring who have lost touch over the decades, an opportunity to glean through and learn about their Shan homeland

We have provided a form for uploading more photographs ( digital jpg or png format) that you might like to contribute to this site. We will acknowledge you as the source for the ones we use on the website. Actual photographs can also be sent to us for scanning and including on the site – just click on “Contact” to send us a description of what you have and we will reply with a postal address by return.

Sao Sanda has also written an informative autobiography, “The Moon Princess”. More about this on the “Books Published” page.