Buppha Nimmaanhemin (บุปผา นิมมานเหมินท์)

Thai. Name of an early 20th century female novelist of royal descend, who held the title of momluangying. She was born on 17 February 1905 in Bangkok's Wang Ban Moh (วังบ้านหม้อ), a former palace located along Khlong Khoo Meuang, i.e. Khlong Rop Krung. She was the 31st daughter of Chao Phraya Thewetwong Wiwat (เทเวศร์วงศ์วิวัฒน์), i.e. Momratchawong Lahn Koonchorn (ม.ร.ว. หลาน กุญชร), whose father was a grandson of King Rama II and the initiator of the House of Koonchorn (กุญชร), with his consort Mom (หม่อม) Malai Koonchorn Na Ayutthaya (มาลัย กุญชร ณ อยุธยา). To hide her royal descend and identity, she wrote under the pen name Dokmai Sot (ดอกไม้สด), i.e. ‘Fresh Flower’. Her oeuvre includes the book Phu Dih (ผู้ดี), i.e. ‘The Elite’, which was selected by the Ministry of Education as an advisory novel worthwhile to read outside the compulsory school curriculum. In 1959, Buppha Nimmaanhemin followed her husband to India, where she died of heart failure on 17 January 1963, at the age of 57. She passed away at the residence of the Thai Embassy in New Delhi, where her husband was posted as the Thai Ambassador to India. Her younger half-sister, Boonleua Thepayasuwan (บุญเหลือ เทพยสุวรรณ), was also a writer. In 2005, one hundred years after her birthday, Buppha Nimmaanhemin was celebrated with a Thai postage stamp, issued to commemorate a Century of Modern Thai Writers (fig.). 回