King Bagyidaw

The Hairy Family of Mandalay

Few people in Myanmar know of the strange tale of the "hairy family of Mandalay", though they were once world-famous. The tale started with a hairy boy found in the uplands of Laos who was brought to the Court of Ava by King Bagyidaw (r. 1819-1837) and named Shwe Maung. At least three generations of his family were born with what may have been an extremely rare condition of congenital hypertrichosis, which results in excessive hair growth all over the...