16th May 1975, the day when Sikkim became a part of the Indian Subcontinent marked an end to the monarchy in Sikkim. Though monarchy was abolished and many monarchs gradually faced death, some of them still live and Hope Cooke is one of them.
Born in San Francisco and being an American by birth, Hope Cooke became the Gyalmo of Sikkim (Queen Consort) in 1965 following the coronation of Palden Thondup Namgyal as the king. Presently living in Brooklyn, US, she works as a writer, historian and a lecturer. She has been a regular contributor to book reviews and magazines.
EARLY LIFE: Losing her mother, Hope Noyes, at an early age in a plane crash, Cooke became the ward of her uncle and aunt, Mary Paul and Selden Chapin, a former US Ambassador to Iran and Peru. She attended the Madeira School for three years before finishing high school in Iran.
MEETING THE CROWN PRINCE: In 1959, on a summer trip to India, she met Palden Thondup Namgyal, the crown prince of Sikkim in Windamere Hotel, Darjeeling. He being a recent widower with two sons and a daughter, they were drawn to each other by the similar isolation of hteir childhoods. Two years later, 1961, their engagement was announced though crown prince Palden was nearly twice her age.
MARRIAGE: On March 20, 1963, Cooke married Namgyal in a Buddhist Monastery. She renounced her US Citizenship. Though Palden being Buddhist, she did not officially convert to Buddhism though she practised Buddhism from early age.
POLITICAL CRISIS: By 1975, Sikkim was under strain due to annexation pressures from India. On April, King Palden was deposed and confined to his palace under house arrest. The couple soon separated as their marriage too faced strains as both had affairs. Cooke returned to Manhattan where she raised her children.
DIVORCE AND PRESENT LIFE: In 1980, the royal couple divorced and Namgyal died of cancer in 1982. In 1981, she wrote an award-winning memoir of her life in SIkkim, Time Change: An Autobiography.
Living an ordinary life, presently in Brooklyn, though divorced, Hope Cooke, is one of the last living monarchs of Sikkim.
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