Must See. The Sacred Hairy Family of Burma: A Forgotten Royal Curiosity

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Johannes & Co

 

Recent headlines about India’s Lalit Patidar, the teenager with the world’s hairiest face, have stirred memories in Myanmar of an extraordinary family once known across the globe as the “Hairy People of Burma.”

 

In the 19th century, four generations of one Burmese family captivated royalty and colonials alike with their striking appearance—faces and bodies thickly covered in hair due to a rare genetic condition known as hypertrichosis lanuginosa. Unlike Patidar, their condition affected their entire bodies, earning them the nickname “monkey people”—a label far removed from their otherwise ordinary intelligence and manner.

 

At the heart of this story was Shwe-Maong, first recorded by British envoy John Crawfurd in 1826 during a diplomatic mission to King Bagyidaw’s court in Ava, following the First Anglo-Burmese War. Gifted to the king as a child from present-day Laos, Shwe-Maong grew up within the royal court, eventually marrying and fathering four children—one of whom, Maphoon, inherited his distinctive hair.

 

Maphoon herself became a figure of fascination. When Captain Henry Yule visited Amarapura in 1855, he found her widowed but living comfortably. She had refused an Italian suitor after the king offered a generous dowry to ensure she married a Burmese man. That union produced Moung-Phoset, equally furry, who went on to have a daughter—Mah-Me—who also carried the genetic trait.

 

This unusual lineage spanned nearly a century in Mandalay, serving successive kings, receiving royal privileges, and even managing market taxation under King Mindon. Their tale took an international turn in 1886, after the fall of King Thibaw and the collapse of the Burmese monarchy.

 

With the help of Italian ex-military advisor Captain Paperno, Maphoon and Moung-Phoset travelled to Europe, performing at London’s Egyptian Hall and later under P.T. Barnum’s banner in the U.S. as the “Sacred Hairy Family of Burma.” Maphoon, reportedly blind by then, died in Washington in 1888. What became of Moung-Phoset remains a mystery.

 

Despite their global fame in the 1800s, no similar cases of hypertrichosis have been recorded in Myanmar since. The family’s story, once at the intersection of science, spectacle and empire, now lingers as a curious chapter in both medical history and Burmese folklore.

 

-2025-04-09