Inge believed her husband was a mining engineer, but upon arriving in Rangoon, Burma, she was surprised to find a large, cheering crowd welcoming them.

Upon his return in 1953, Sao Kya Seng established the Tai Mining Company with the goal of harnessing his state's abundant mineral resources, including lead, silver, salt, antimony, zinc, and gold.

Implementing innovative changes to the traditional feudal system of his state, Sao Kya Seng generously granted all princely family paddy fields to the cultivating farmers.

The elderly residents of Hsipaw fondly reminisce about the bygone era of their young princely couple, a time when their quality of life exceeded what they experience today, marked by decades of mismanagement under successive military-dominated regimes.

His wife persistently wrote letters to the Burmese civilian president, Thein Sein, seeking information about Sao Kya Seng.

[4] On October 1, 2015, Sao Kya Seng's alma mater Colorado School of Mines acknowledged his contributions, posthumously awarding him the Distinguished Achievement Medal for his remarkable professional accomplishments.