The strange tale of the "Hairy Family" of Mandalay.
They were once world-famous. It started with a boy, found in the uplands of what is today Laos, later named Shwe Maung, brought to the Court of Ava by King Bagyidaw.
Shwe Maung and his descendants would live at the royal court - at Amarapura and Mandalay - for three generations. They were educated and often made money by exhibiting themselves to visiting Europeans. Everything changed with the fall of Mandalay in 1885, and they temporarily fled into the forest for their safety.
Shwe Maung's daughter (Ma Phon) and grandchildren (Maung Po Set and Ma Me) soon came under the 'management' of an English businessman who shipped to London and Paris, where many firms competed to hire them as circus freaks.
The winning contract was secured by the American showman PT Barnum (later of Barnum and Baily's "Greatest Show on Earth") for $100,000 (worth millions in today's money). Ma Phon died shortly after making it to Washington in 1888 and is apparently buried there. No one knows what happened to her son Maung Po Set and Ma Me. They vanished in America.
They were once world-famous. It started with a boy, found in the uplands of what is today Laos, later named Shwe Maung, brought to the Court of Ava by King Bagyidaw.
Shwe Maung and his descendants would live at the royal court - at Amarapura and Mandalay - for three generations. They were educated and often made money by exhibiting themselves to visiting Europeans. Everything changed with the fall of Mandalay in 1885, and they temporarily fled into the forest for their safety.
Shwe Maung's daughter (Ma Phon) and grandchildren (Maung Po Set and Ma Me) soon came under the 'management' of an English businessman who shipped to London and Paris, where many firms competed to hire them as circus freaks.
The winning contract was secured by the American showman PT Barnum (later of Barnum and Baily's "Greatest Show on Earth") for $100,000 (worth millions in today's money). Ma Phon died shortly after making it to Washington in 1888 and is apparently buried there. No one knows what happened to her son Maung Po Set and Ma Me. They vanished in America.
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