King Thibaw, who was crowned in 1878, ruled Burma (now Myanmar) for seven years with his Queen Supayalat. It was a time when the royal family was treated like demigods; they lived richly in the Golden Palace in Mandalay.
'I would like to believe that out of this struggle (to effect climate change) will be born a generation that will be able to look upon the world with clearer eyes than those that preceded it; that they will be able to transcend the isolation in which humanity was entrapped in the time of its derangement; that they will rediscover their kinship with other beings, and that this vision, at once new and ancient, will find expression in a transformed and renewed art and literature.'