Chao Soymala Inieum na Jampasak, 67, shows a tray of her glittering inheritance.January 22, 2009
The Nation
Chiang Mai - A descendant of Laos' Luang Prabang royals yesterday announced she was selling 200-year-old silks and jewellery worth Bt30 million to raise funds for monks' education.
Chao Soymala Inieum na Jampasak, 67, said she wanted to help cover fees for more than 200 monks from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bhutan, Nepal and Chiang Tung City to study at Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University in Chiang Mai, her adopted home.
Treasures for dharma
Chao Soymala, whose great great grandfather was Phrachao Chaiyachettha, a ruler in the Lan Chang Dynasty, escaped to Thailand as a 30-year-old after the Laotian revolution of 1975. After marrying, she settled in Chiang Mai and sold Laotian silks.
She is selling 1,000 antique silks decorated with gold and silver threads, some estimated to be worth Bt150,000, as part of a collection that's expected to fetch Bt20 million or more. Century old gold ornaments worth about Bt10 million in total are also for sale, she added.
Bt600,000 from the sale will go towards the tuition fees. The rest will form a fund to assist monks on dharma study missions and to buy clothes for needy female prison inmates, she said.
Those interested can contact Chao Soymala at (053) 832 854.
