Rare 1971 King Namgyal Queen Sikkim India Royalty Signed Card Autograph Document for Sale

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Rare 1971 King Namgyal Queen Sikkim India Royalty Signed Card Autograph Document For Sale

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Rare 1971 King Namgyal Queen Sikkim India Royalty Signed Card Autograph Document:
$549.95

LOT-P45. For your consideration is an exceedingly rare and historically important c.1971 manuscript hand-signed Card by HM King Palden Thondup Namgyal and HM Queen Hope Cooke of Sakkim. Guaranteed original and authentic. Condition is original. Signature is manuscript in ink. Card measures approximately 13.0" x 4.0" fully open.

Palden Thondup Namgyal(23 May 1923– 29 January 1982) was the 12th and lastChogyal(king) of theKingdom of Sikkim.

23 May 1923– 29 January 1982) was the 12th and lastChogyal(king) of theKingdom of Sikkim. Namgyal was born on 23 May 1923 at the Royal Palace, Park Ridge,Gangtok.

At six, he became a student at St. Joseph's Convent inKalimpong, but had to terminate his studies due to attacks of malaria. From age eight to eleven he studied under his uncle, Rimpoche Lhatsun, in order to beordainedaBuddhist monk; he was subsequently recognised as the reincarnated leader of bothPhodongandRumtekmonasteries. He later continued his studies atSt. Joseph's CollegeinDarjeelingand finally graduated fromBishop Cotton SchoolinShimla, in 1941. His plans to study science at Cambridge were dashed when his elder brother, the crown prince, a member of theIndian Air Forcewas killed in a plane crash in 1941.

Namgyal served as adviser for internal affairs for his father,Sir Tashi Namgyal, the 11th Chogyal, and led the negotiating team which established Sikkim's relationship toIndiaafter independence in 1949. He married Samyo Kushoe Sangideki in 1950, a daughter of an importantTibetanfamily of Lhasa, and together they had two sons and a daughter. Samyo Kushoe Sangideki died in 1957.

Hope Cooke(born June 24, 1940) is anAmericanwho was the "Gyalmo",Wylie:rgyal mo) (Queen Consort) of the 12thChogyal(King) ofSikkim,Palden Thondup Namgyal.Their wedding took place in March 1963. She was termedHer Highness The Crown Princess of Sikkimand became theGyalmo of Sikkimat Palden Thondup Namgyal's coronation in 1965.

Palden Thondup Namgyal was to be the last king of Sikkim as aprotectoratestate under India. By 1973, both the country and their marriage were crumbling; soon Sikkim was merged into India. Five months after the takeover of Sikkim had begun, Cooke returned to the United States with her two children and stepdaughter to enroll them in schools in New York City. Cooke and her husband divorced in 1980; Namgyal died of cancer in 1982.

Cooke wrote an autobiography,Time Change(Simon & Schuster1981) and began a career as a lecturer, book critic, and magazine contributor, later becoming anurban historian. In her new life as a student of New York City, Cooke publishedSeeing New York(Temple University Press1995); worked as a newspaper columnist (Daily News); and taught atYale University,Sarah Lawrence College, andBirch Wathen, a New York City private school.