Burmese Grandparents Reincarnate as their Daughter’s Fraternal Twin Girls, Demonstrating Planning of Lifetimes and Gender Change Involving the Grandfather. The Past Life Cases of Ma Khin Ma Gyi and Ma Khin Ma Nge: Muslim Reincarnation

How Derived: Past Life Memories in Childhood 

Researcher: Ian Stevenson. MD

From: Reincarnation and Biology, Volume 2, by Ian Stevenson, pages 2000-2017

Article by: Walter Semkiw, MD

The Lives and Deaths of U Maung Muang and Daw Aye Hla

The name of the grandfather in this case was U Maung Maung and the grandmother was Daw Aye Hla.  For simplicity, we will refer to the grandfather as Maung and the grandmother as Daw. The couple lived in Burma, which today is known as Myanmar.

Maung was ethnically an Indian, of the subcontinent of India, but he adopted a Burmese name. Burma is just east of the northern region of India. On the map of Burma featured to the right, cities involved in this story involve Mandalay, which a hotel and casino in Las Vegas is named for, Rangoon and the city of Pantanaw, which is on the large Irrawaddy River just west of Rangoon. The Irrawaddy river is marked by the blue line. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Maung Considers Himself a Muslim

Maung’s father was a Buddhist, but he died before Maung’s birth. His mother remarried a man who was Islamic, and she converted to the Muslim faith. As such, Maung was raised as a Muslim. He did not learn that his father was a Buddhist until a year before his own death at the age of 44. As such, throughout his life, Maung identified himself as a Muslim.

Maung was intelligent, obtained an education and became a Burmese governmental official. He also had mechanical skills and enjoyed repairing motor engines, cars and even watches. Maung had a gun, which he would use to hunt birds.

He was observed to be honest and straightforward, but was vulnerable to flattery. As such, he was very kind to those who praised him.

Maung raised chickens. He would tie a string to a leg of young chicks and he would tie the other end of the string to a post on his property, so that the chicks would not run away. Once the chicks identified the terrain as their home, he would free them, as they would no longer run off.  He did not eat the chickens, rather, he would employ them to lay eggs, which his family ate as a source of food. As a Muslim, he ate meat.

Daw, Maung’s Wife, Condemns his Treatment of Chickens and his Hunting of Birds

Maung married Daw, who was a devout Buddhist. Daw was uneducated and illiterate, but she was headstrong and bossy.

As a Buddhist, Daw considered Maung’s killing of birds with his gun and the binding of chickens by their legs to a post as misdeeds, which would create bad karma for him. Daw told Maung that these practices would cause him punishment in a future life.

Maung and Daw had a daughter, who they named Daw Mya Tin. For simplicity, we shall refer to their daughter as Tin.

Maung the Muslim and Daw the Buddhist Separate

The religious conflict between Maung and Daw became so severe that that the couple decided to separate. They both hoped to reconcile, but this never happened. They had been apart for two years when Maung died in the Burmese town of Pantanaw in 1950, at the age of 44. Pantanaw, just east of Rangoon, is near the large Irrawaddy River, which supplies locals with fish and shrimp as a source of food.

After her husband’s death, Daw started to cough up blood and it was suspected that she had tuberculosis. It was also thought that she may have contracted malaria. She died in the Burmese city of Mandalay in 1954, four years after her husband died.

Tin Receives an Announcing Dream in Which her Parents Reveal That They Would Be Reborn as Her Children.

The daughter of Maung and Daw, Tin, married a man named Thaw and they lived in the town of Ba Htu Myo.

Tin became pregnant and at 4 months of gestation, she had a dream in which her parents appeared and said that they would be reborn as her children.

Tin went into labor at 7 months of her pregnancy and on February 5, 1961, she had twin girls. The twins had different facial features and laboratory testing confirmed that they were fraternal, not identical twins. After the birth of the twins, the family moved to the Burmese city of Rangoon.

The twin girls were named Ma Khin Ma Gyi and Ma Khin Ma Nge. For simplicity, we will refer to them as Gyi and Nge.

Gyi Attributes Her Birth Defects to Her Cruelty Towards Birds in Her Past Life as Maung

Gyi was born with two birth defects. She had a major defect of her left hand in which her fingers appeared to have been amputated. She had a minor defect of her left lower leg in which there was a circular indentation, as if a rope had been forcefully tied round her lower leg which caused the defect of her leg.

Gyi started to speak when she was three years of age. Between ages four and five she began to talk about a previous life as her mother’s father, Maung. She stated that she had been born with the malformation of her left hand because in her lifetime as Maung, she used a gun to kill birds. She said that the circular indentation on her left lower leg was due to her tying chickens by their legs to a post. There was no history of birth defects in the family.

Gyi’s parents observed that she became sad and took on a ‘faraway” look whenever she talked about her past life. As a result, her father adopted a policy of suppressing her talking of a past lifetime. Though Gyi obeyed her father at home, she still spoke about her previous life with her childhood playmates.

In addition, Gyi expressed a desire to go to Pantanaw for the summer because she said there were a lot of shrimp and fish there. Pantanaw is 70 kilometers or 44 miles from Rangoon, where the family lived.

The twins and their parents had never been to Pantanaw, so Gyi could not have known this fact through normal means. Recall that Maung lived in Pantanaw at the time of his death.

Nge Tells Her Parents that She Had Been Daw, Tin’s Mother, in a Previous Life

The twin’s parents often observed their girls identifying each other from their previous lives. Gyi would tell Nge that Nge was Daw in their past lives. Nge would tell Gyi that she was had been Maung. Further, Nge, when speaking to persons outside of the family, would refer to her mother, Tin, as her daughter.

Nge would particularly talk about her previous life when she was scolded. She would object to the individual who scolded her and say that she had been Daw and that she resented being scolded. Nge continued to do so at least until 1972, when the twins were almost 12 years old.

Gyi’s Masculine Behavior and Traits that Reflected Her Past Lifetime as Maung, Her Maternal Grandfather.

Gyi strongly expressed masculine traits. She chose to wear boy’s clothes and did so whenever she could at least up to age of nine. She even asked to have a boy’s suit specially made for her, which was done. She also had her hair cut in the style of a boy.

Gyi preferred to play with toy cars and trucks, rather than dolls, which seemed to reflect Maung’s fondness for repairing engines and cars. She also preferred to play with boys, rather than other girls.

She also showed zeal in catching insects and then crushing them, reflecting Maung’s practice of shooting birds with his gun. Gyi enjoyed eating poultry and wanted to keep chickens at their home, much like Maung did. Maung was ethnically Indian and he enjoyed Indian foods, such as curries, and so did Gyi. In contrast, no one else in Gyi’s family liked Indian food.

Nge’s Feminine Behavior and Traits that Reflect Her Past Lifetime as Daw, Her Maternal Grandmother

In contrast to Gyi, Nge preferred to play with dolls, enjoyed dancing and singing, and she loved flowers. Nge preferred to play with other girls, wore her hair in the style of a girl and she was very concerned about her appearance. She kept herself cleaner than Gyi and Nge eagerly put on Thanaka paste on her face and arms, which is a cosmetic paste made from ground tree bark used by women in Burma as a beauty aid. Gyi, on the other hand, refused to use Thanaka paste.

Nge was respectful of Buddhist monks and participated in giving food to them. Recall Daw was a devout Buddhist. Gyi did not show respect to monks, which reflected Maung’s Muslim faith.

Nge was bossy, especially towards Gyi, which reflected Daw’s bossy behavior towards her husband, Maung. Gyi, in contrast, was compliant.

When the twins entered school, Nge was found to be less intelligent than Gyi, which reflected Daw’s illiteracy. Gyi, recall, was intelligent, educated and worked as a government employee. Nge would not drink coffee, only tea, which reflected Daw’s preferences. Gyi enjoyed coffee and tea, much like Maung.

The Physiques of the Twins Reflect their Past Life Appearances

At 6 years of age, Gyi was taller and had a had a heavier build than Daw. These features corresponded to Gyi’s past life as Maung, a man, and Nge’s past life as Daw, a female.

When Gyi was 13 years old, she stated that she preferred to have been a boy.

Were Gyi’s Birth Defects Due to Karma Related to Past Life Treatment of Birds?

Gyi, as a child, stated that the deformity of her left hand was a consequence of her shooting birds with a gun and that her left lower leg deformity was due to tying chickens to a post during her past life as Maung.

It is unlikely that Gyi’s deformitis were karmic in nature because if everyone who shot or mistreated birds incurred such birth defects, then there would be a large number of such deformities in the general population.

Ian Stevenson, MD speculated that thoughts in a soul’s mind can influence the development of the body during gestation. In other words, if the soul of Maung believed that he would have deformities related to his treatment of birds based on his wife’s admonitions, then these beliefs or thoughts may have been imprinted on Gyi’s developing body to create her birth defects. I too favor this explanation.

Principles of Reincarnation-Understanding of Past Lives

Physical Resemblance in Reincarnation Cases: Photographs of Maung and Daw were not provided in Dr. Stevenson’s documentation of these cases, so we do not know if the facial features of Maung | Gyi and Daw | Nge were similar. It was noted, however, that the twins’ physiques mirrored their past life builds.

Change of Gender with Gender Identity Issues: Maung, the grandfather, was a male and reincarnated as one of his daughter’s twin girls, Gyi. Gyi demonstrated masculine traits, including playing with toy cars and wearing boy’s clothing, reflecting het past life as a man. Gyi also remarked that she wished she had been born as a boy.

In the series of over 1500 validated childhood past life memory cases compiled at the University of Virginia, gender change only occurs in 10 percent of cases. When gender change does occur, the individual is often observed to demonstrate behavior typical of the previous gender. Homosexuality can also result, as demonstrated in the:

Reincarnation Case of a Japanese Soldier | Ma

Change of Religion through Reincarnation: Maung was a Muslim, while Daw was Buddhist. Dr. Stevenson did not document what religion the twin’s parents,  Tin and Thaw, belonged to, but either Maung or Daw reincarnated into a different religion. To review other reincarnation cases involving Muslims, please go to:

Reincarnation in Islam and Muslim Reincarnation Cases

Relationships Renewed through Reincarnation: Maung and Daw reincarnated as the fraternal twin girls of their own daughter, Tin.

In Dr. Stevenson’s documentation of the cases involving Maung | Gyi and Daw | Nge, he cited a another set of Burmese cases in which a husband and wife reincarnated as twin boys. This case was documented by Fielding Hall in his book, The Soul of a People, which was published in 1898. Hall noted that the physiques of these twin boys also mirrored their builds in their past lives as husband and spouse.

Stevenson complied 31 sets of twins who had spontaneous past life memories in childhood that were objectively validated. In 100 percent of these cases, the twins had significant past life relationships. To learn more about loved ones who reincarnated as twins, please go to:

Ian Stevenson, MD Twin Study and Twin Cases

Spirit Being Involvement in Reincarnation Cases: Tin received an announcing dream from her parents, Maung and Daw, indicating that they would be reborn as her children, which did occur.