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{{Short description|Queen of Sikkim from 1963 to 1975}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2013}}
{{Infobox royalty
| consort = yes
| name = Hope Cooke
| image = Hope Cooke, Queen of Sikkim (LOC ppmsca.30180).jpg
| alt =
| caption = Hope Namgyal, Queen of Sikkim in 1971, photograph by [[Alice Kandell]]
| succession = [[Queen consort]] of [[Sikkim]]
| reign = 1963–1975
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1940|6|24}}
| birth_place = San Francisco, California, US
| module={{Infobox person|child=yes| alma_mater = [[Sarah Lawrence College]]}}
| title = Gyalmo of Sikkim
| predecessor = Samyo Kushoe Sangideki
| successor = ''Monarchy abolished''
| regnal name = Hope La
| occupation = Author, lecturer
| house = [[Chogyal|Namgyal]]
| house-type = Dynasty
| religion = [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]]
| spouse = {{Unbulleted list
| [[Palden Thondup Namgyal|King Palden Thondup Namgyal]] (1963–1980; divorced)
| [[Mike Wallace (historian)|Mike Wallace]] (divorced)}}
| issue = Prince Palden Gyurmed Namgyal<br />Princess Hope Leezum Namgyal Tobden (Mrs. Yep Wangyal Tobden)
| father = John J. Cooke
| mother = Hope Noyes
}}

'''Hope Cooke''' (born June 24, 1940) is the former Gyalmo ({{bo|t=རྒྱལ་མོ་|w=rgyal mo}}; [[Queen consort]]) of the 12th and last [[Chogyal]] (King) of [[Kingdom of Sikkim|Sikkim]], [[Palden Thondup Namgyal]].<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/08/books/the-fairy-tale-that-turned-nightmare.html|title=The Fairy Tale That Turned Nightmare?|date=March 8, 1981|work=The New York Times}}</ref> Their wedding took place in March 1963. She was termed ''Her Highness The Crown Princess of Sikkim'' and became the ''Gyalmo of Sikkim'' at Palden Thondup Namgyal's coronation in 1965.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Malik |first=Preet Mohan Singh |date=2021-05-16 |title=When Hope Cooke, the American socialite wife of Sikkim king, asked for return of Darjeeling |url=https://theprint.in/pageturner/excerpt/when-hope-cooke-the-american-socialite-wife-of-sikkim-king-asked-for-return-of-darjeeling/659102/ |access-date=2025-12-13 |website=ThePrint |language=en-US}}</ref> She is the first American-born Queen Consort.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=1973-04-07 |title=Sikkim's Royal Family Guarded As 15,000 Protest Near Capital (Published 1973) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/07/archives/sikkims-royal-family-guarded-as-15000-protest-near-capital-sikkims.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20221101203039/https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/07/archives/sikkims-royal-family-guarded-as-15000-protest-near-capital-sikkims.html |archive-date=2022-11-01 |access-date=2025-12-13 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1975 Namgyal was deposed and Sikkim merged into India as a result of internal turmoil, Indian intervention and a [[1975 Sikkimese monarchy referendum|referendum]]. She had left her husband and the palace in the Himalayan kingdom in July, 1973, and returned to New York.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Hope Cooke assails India over Sikkim |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/13/archives/hope-cooke-assails-india-over-sikkim.html |url-status=live |website=The New York Times. April 13, 1975}}</ref> Cooke and her husband divorced in 1980. Namgyal died of cancer in New York City in 1982.<ref>{{cite news |title=Palden Thondup Namgyal, Deposed Sikkim King, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/30/obituaries/palden-thondup-namgyal-deposed-sikkim-king-dies.html |quote=The deposed King of Sikkim, Palden Thondup Namgyal, who had been undergoing treatment for cancer in New York, died last night from complications following an operation at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He was 58 years old. A family spokesman said his body was to be flown home to Sikkim for the funeral. ... |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date= January 30, 1982 |access-date=2015-02-22}}</ref>

Cooke wrote an autobiography, ''Time Change'' ([[Simon & Schuster]] 1981) and began a career as a lecturer, book critic, and magazine contributor, later becoming an [[urban historian]]. In her new life as a student of New York City, Cooke published ''Seeing New York'' ([[Temple University Press]] 1995); worked as a newspaper columnist (''[[New York Daily News|Daily News]]''); and taught at [[Yale University]], [[Sarah Lawrence College]], and [[Birch Wathen Lenox School|Birch Wathen]], a New York City private school.<ref>{{cite web|title=Yale Himalaya |url=http://himalaya.yale.edu/events/sikkim-film-and-discussion |access-date=December 4, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016043327/http://himalaya.yale.edu/events/sikkim-film-and-discussion |archive-date=October 16, 2013 |df=mdy }}</ref>

== Early life and family ==
Cooke was born in San Francisco to John J. Cooke, a flight instructor, and Hope Noyes, an amateur pilot. She was raised in the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]].<ref name="nytimes1982">[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/30/obituaries/palden-thondup-namgyal-deposed-sikkim-king-dies.html?pagewanted=all Palden Thondup Namgyal, Deposed Sikkim King, Dies - Nytimes.Com]</ref> Her mother, Hope Noyes, died in January 1942 at age 25 when the plane she was flying solo crashed.<ref name="po">{{cite news |last1=Burns |first1=Cherie |title=Being a Queen Didn't Quite Work Out, but on This Cooke's Tour Hope Springs Eternal |url=https://people.com/archive/being-a-queen-didnt-quite-work-out-but-on-this-cookes-tour-hope-springs-eternal-vol-15-no-9/ |access-date=2021-11-04 |work=[[People (magazine)|People]] |date=9 March 1981}}</ref><ref name=bio>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1513712/bio IMDb biography]</ref>

After her mother's death, Cooke and her half-sister, Harriet Townsend, moved to a New York City apartment across the hall from their maternal grandparents, Helen (Humpstone) and Winchester Noyes, the president of [[J. H. Winchester & Company]], an international shipping brokerage firm. They were raised by a succession of governesses.<ref name=po/> Her grandfather died when she was 12 and her grandmother died three years later. Cooke became the [[ward (law)|ward]] of her aunt and uncle, Mary Paul (Noyes) and [[Selden Chapin]], a former [[US Ambassador to Iran]] and [[US Ambassador to Peru|Peru]]. She studied at the [[Chapin School (Manhattan)|Chapin School]] in New York and attended the [[Madeira School]] for three years before finishing high school in Iran.<ref name=wa/>

== Marriage to the Crown Prince of Sikkim ==
[[File:Koning en koningin van Sikkim (1966).jpg|thumb|left|The King and Queen of Sikkim (1966)]]
In 1959, Cooke was a freshman majoring in [[Asian Studies]] at [[Sarah Lawrence College]] and sharing an apartment with actress [[Jane Alexander]]. She went on a summer trip to India and met [[Palden Thondup Namgyal]], Crown Prince of [[Sikkim]], in the lounge<ref>Duff, A. (2015) Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom. Berlinn Ltd</ref> of the [[Windamere Hotel]] in [[Darjeeling]], India. He was a 36 year-old recent widower with two sons and a daughter. They were drawn to each other by the similar isolation of their childhoods. Two years later, in 1961, their engagement was announced, but the wedding was put off for more than a year because [[Astrology|astrologers]] in both Sikkim and India warned that 1962 was an inauspicious year for marriages.<ref name="nyt"/>

On March 20, 1963, Cooke married Namgyal in a [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] monastery in a ceremony performed by fourteen [[lama]]s. Wedding guests included members of Indian royalty, Indian and Sikkimese generals, and the [[US Ambassador to India]], [[John Kenneth Galbraith]].<ref name="nyt"/> Cooke [[Relinquishment of United States nationality|renounced her United States citizenship]] as required by Sikkim's laws and also as a demonstration to the people of Sikkim that she was not an "American arm" in the Himalayas.<ref name="ERG19760613">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19760613&id=B6xVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6804,2964388|title=Hope Cooke seeks to regain U.S. citizenship |work=Eugene Register-Guard|date=June 13, 1976|access-date=April 8, 2013}}</ref> She was dropped from the ''[[Social Register]]'' but the marriage was reported in ''[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]]'' magazine. ''[[The New Yorker]]'' followed the royal couple on one of their yearly trips to the United States.<ref name="nyt"/> Although her husband was Buddhist, Cooke did not officially convert from Christianity to Buddhism though she had practiced Buddhism from an early age ([[Henry Kissinger]] once remarked "she has become more Buddhist than the population").<ref>Wheeler, S. (2015) [https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/08/the-story-of-sikkims-last-king-and-queen-reads-like-a-fairy-tale-gone-wrong/ The story of Sikkim's last king and queen reads like a fairy tale gone wrong]</ref><ref>Cooke, H. (1980) Time Change. Simon & Schuster</ref><ref name="nytimes1982"/> Namgyal was crowned monarch of Sikkim on April 4, 1965. However, their marriage faced strains, and both had affairs: he with a married Belgian woman, and she with an American friend.<ref name="nyt"/><ref name="po"/>

[[File:King and Queen of Sikkim and their daughter watch birthday celebrations, Gangtok, Sikkim (LOC ppmsca.30171).jpg|left|thumb|The King and Queen of Sikkim and their daughter watch birthday celebrations in Gangtok]]

At the same time, Sikkim was under strain due to pro-democracy crowds marching on the palace against the monarchy.<ref>Gray, Francine Du Plessix, [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/08/books/the-fairy-tale-that-turned-nightmare.html The Fairy Tale That Turned Nightmare?], ''The New York Times'', March 8, 1981.</ref> Amidst this, Cooke had left for New York in July 1973, leaving her husband and the palace. On Thursday, April 10, 1975 the legislature in Sikkim voted to abolish the monarchy and seek full statehood in India. The King, [[Palden Thondup Namgyal]], was cloistered in his palace under protection.<ref name=":0" /> The couple separated in 1980.

In May 1975, Representative [[James W. Symington]] (D-MO) and Senator [[Mike Mansfield]] (D-MT) sponsored [[private bill]]s to restore her citizenship;<ref>{{USBill|94|HR|6855}} and {{USBill|94|S|1699}}; {{USStat|90|2976}} [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?browsePath=1976%2FPRIVATELAW&granuleId=STATUTE-90-Pg2976&packageId=STATUTE-90&fromBrowse=true]</ref> however, after the bill passed the Senate, several members of the [[United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship|House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration]] objected{{why?|date=September 2025}}, and the bill had to be amended to grant her only [[Green card|U.S. permanent resident status]] before it could gain their support and pass Congress.<ref name="ERG19760613" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=O_EiAAAAIBAJ&pg=2973,5196807|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130616092212/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=O_EiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=58sFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2973,5196807|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 16, 2013|title=Once a Queen, She Just Wants To Be an American Citizen|work=The Palm Beach Post|date=June 13, 1976|access-date=April 9, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0055/1669347.pdf |title=6/15/76 S1699 Relief of Mrs Hope Namgyal |publisher=Federal Government of the United States |year=1975 |location=Washington D. C. |access-date=27 September 2022 |via=[[Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum]]}}</ref> President [[Gerald Ford]] signed the bill into law on June 16, 1976.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=y30xAAAAIBAJ&pg=6368,300195|title=Hope Cooke allowed to stay|work=The Montreal Gazette|date=June 17, 1976|access-date=April 8, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0248/whpr19760615-010.pdf |title=Gerald R. Ford Administration White House Press Releases |publisher=Federal Government of the United States |year=1976 |location=Washington D. C. |quote="The President has signed S. 1699 - Relief of Mrs. Hope Namgyal. This bill grants perm nent [sic] resident status to the American-born wife of the deposed Crown Prince of Sikkim" |access-date=27 September 2022 |via=[[Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum]]}}</ref> By 1981, she still had not been able to regain U.S. citizenship.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/172311965 |title='Fairy tale princess' is grateful to be back in America|work=Chicago Tribune |date=March 26, 1981 |access-date=April 9, 2013|id={{ProQuest|172311965}} |quote=Miss Cooke seems firmly replanted in the United States, though she has not been able to regain her citizenship}}</ref> The royal couple divorced in 1980, and Namgyal died of cancer in 1982 in New York City.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19760613&id=B6xVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6804,2964388|title=Hope Cooke seeks to regain U.S. citizenship|work=Eugene Register-Guard|date=1976-06-13|access-date=2013-04-08}}</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/30/obituaries/palden-thondup-namgyal-deposed-sikkim-king-dies.html "Palden Thondup Namgyal, Deposed Sikkim King, Dies"], ''The New York Times'', January 30, 1982.</ref><ref name="privatebill">Ashley Dunn, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-02-04-mn-1209-story.html "Congress' Ticket for Foreigners: 'Private bills' have granted citizenship or residency to many who were ineligible under U.S. law."], ''Los Angeles Times'', February 4, 1992.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mpcuAAAAIBAJ&pg=3902,3319390|title=Hope Cooke's fate in hands of Ford, fairy-tale life ends|work=The Montreal Gazette|date=1976-06-14|access-date=2013-04-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=y30xAAAAIBAJ&pg=6368,300195|title=Hope Cooke allowed to stay|work=The Montreal Gazette|date=1976-06-17|access-date=December 4, 2014}}</ref>

== Later life ==
With child support from Namgyal and an inheritance from her grandparents, Cooke rented an apartment in the [[Yorkville, Manhattan|Yorkville]] area of New York City. This time around, she felt "profoundly displaced" in the city and started going on walking tours and then creating her own.<ref name=nym>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7uQCAAAAMBAJ&dq=Hope+Cooke&pg=PA31 "Cooke's Tours"], ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'', p.{{nbsp}}31 (September 26, 1988)</ref> She studied Dutch journals, old church sermons, and newspaper articles to acquaint herself with the city and lectured on the [[social history]] of New York. She wrote a weekly column, "Undiscovered Manhattan", for the ''[[New York (Daily News)|Daily News]]''. Her books include an award-winning memoir of her life in Sikkim, ''Time Change: An Autobiography'' (1981), an off-the-beaten-path guide to New York, ''Seeing New York'',<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/784_reg.html |title=Hope Cooke: Seeing New York |access-date=March 30, 2017 |archive-date=May 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502163923/http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/784_reg.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> developed from her walking tours, and, with [[Jacques d'Amboise (dancer)|Jacques d'Amboise]], she published ''Teaching the Magic of Dance''.<ref name=wa/>

Cooke remarried in 1983 to [[Mike Wallace (historian)|Mike Wallace]], a [[Pulitzer Prize]]–winning historian and Distinguished Professor of History at [[John Jay College of Criminal Justice]].<ref name=wa/><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100612094942/http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/history/facultyprofile/wallace.asp "Mike Wallace"], John Jay College of Criminal Justice website; accessed December 3, 2014.</ref> They later divorced. Her son, Prince Palden, a New York banker and financial advisor, married Kesang Deki Tashi and has a son and three daughters. Cooke's daughter, Princess Hope, graduated from [[Milton Academy]] and [[Georgetown University]], and married (and later divorced) Thomas Gwyn Reich, Jr., a US Foreign Service officer; she later remarried, to Yep Wangyal Tobden.{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}}

Cooke lived in London for a few years before returning to the United States, where she now lives in [[Brooklyn]] and currently works as a writer, historian, and lecturer.<ref name=wa>[[Michael T. Kaufman|Kaufman, Michael T.]] (February 24, 1993). [https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/24/nyregion/about-new-york-when-east-met-west-and-walking-around-led-to-brooklyn.html "About New York: When East Met West and Walking Around Led to Brooklyn"]. ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref> She was a consultant for [[PBS]]'s ''[[New York: A Documentary Film]]'' (1999–2001).<ref>{{IMDb name|1513712}}</ref> Cooke has contributed to book reviews and magazines and lectured widely.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}

==Political involvement and controversies==
Cooke, along with other advisors, was involved in policy formation for the Chogyal. One of this was to dig up the controversy around the grant of Darjeeling to the [[East India Company|East India Company (EIC)]]. She twisted it in turn to advocate for its return from India in an article published in 1967. The article put the trust between the Chogyal and Indian government in severe strain. Cooke was labelled as a "[[Trojan Horse]]" planted by [[Central Intelligence Agency]] to undermine the Indian government's efforts. There was local resentment against her, and the Sikkimese bureaucrats accused her of meddling in administrative decisions. She had diverted the Indian government aid funds for [[Bhutia]] interests, thereby alienating the Nepalese majority and fostering ethnic divide.<ref name=":1" />

She faced allegations of being an agent of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] during her tenure as queen, purportedly promoting American interests and opposing the merger of Sikkim, then an Indian protectorate. Her American background also fueled suspicions of CIA influence in Sikkim's affairs.<ref name="c905">{{cite web |date=March 27, 2024 |title=CIA एजेंट कैसे बन गई भारत की महारानी? खूबसूरती पर मर मिटे थे महाराजा |url=https://hindi.news18.com/news/knowledge/sikkim-queen-hope-cooke-who-was-accused-of-being-an-american-cia-spy-8184095.html |access-date=July 17, 2024 |website=News18 हिंदी |language=hi}}</ref>

Her deliberate and repetitive interventions were seen as creating internal unrest and added fuel to the growing pro-democracy movements, which culminated in riots in April 1973. Amidst this, Cooke along with her children had left Sikkim and returned to New York in 1973, leaving behind her husband. In 1975, under the pro-democracy movement over 97% Sikkimese voted in a referendum to abolish monarchy, and integrate Sikkim with India.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" />

== Publications ==
* ''Time Change: An American Woman's Extraordinary Story'', New York: Simon & Schuster (1981); {{ISBN|0-671-41225-6}}.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/28/books/books-of-the-times-an-adult-fairy-tale.html "Review of ''Time Change''"], ''The New York Times'', February 28, 1981.</ref>
* ''Teaching the Magic of Dance'' (with [[Jacques d'Amboise (dancer)|Jacques d'Amboise]]), New York: Simon & Schuster (1983); {{ISBN|0-671-46077-3}}.
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=oaGDOnKCJFkC&q=Hope+Cooke Seeing New York: History Walks for Armchair and Footloose Travelers]'', Philadelphia: Temple University Press (1995); {{ISBN|1-56639-289-6}}.
* Cooke wrote several articles for the ''Bulletin of Tibetology'', published by the [[Namgyal Institute of Tibetology]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tibetology.net/publications/bulletin.html|title=Index of the "Bulletin of Tibetology"|date=5 April 2017|website=Namgyal Institute of Tibetology|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428153152/http://www.tibetology.net/publications/bulletin.html|archive-date=April 28, 2016|url-status=dead|access-date=5 April 2017|quote=Bulletin of Tibetology 1966 No.2- "The Sikkimese theory of land holding and the Darjeeling grant" by Hope Namgyal and Bulletin of Tibetology 1969 No.1- "Obituary: Princess Pema Choki" by Hope Namgyal|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Bibliography ==
* "[https://books.google.com/books?id=S1MEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Hope+Cooke&pg=PA36 Crowning of Hope Cook, Sarah Lawrence '63']" in ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'', April 23, 1965. p. 37.
* "[https://books.google.com/books?id=LlYEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Hope+Cooke&pg=PA51 How Is Queen Hope Getting Along?]" ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'', May 20, 1966, p. 51.
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=swsfAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA28&article_id=5352,350300 "Hope Cooke: From American Coed to Oriental Queen"]. ''Family Weekly'' (August 2, 1964). ''[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]]''.

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110218144938/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896732,00.html "Where There's Hope"], ''TIME'', March 29, 1963
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=S1MEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA36 LIFE 23 Apr 1965]
* [http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900504-1,00.html "Sikkim: A Queen Revisited"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230516164930/https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900504-1,00.html |date=May 16, 2023 }}, ''TIME'', January 3, 1969
* [[University of Hawaii Museum]]. ''[https://www.flickr.com/photos/uhmuseum/4132497148 Sikkim – Woman's Informal Ensemble].'' ([[Kho (costume)|Kho]] dress worn by Hope Cooke in the 1960s, on Flickr).
*{{IMDb name|1513712}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Hope}}
[[Category:1940 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Writers from San Francisco]]
[[Category:Sarah Lawrence College alumni]]
[[Category:Sarah Lawrence College faculty]]
[[Category:New York Daily News people]]
[[Category:Indian queens consort|Hope]]
[[Category:Sikkim monarchy]]
[[Category:Chapin family]]
[[Category:Indian exiles]]
[[Category:American autobiographers]]
[[Category:American socialites]]
[[Category:American people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:American columnists]]
[[Category:Tour guides]]
[[Category:21st-century American historians]]
[[Category:Writers from Manhattan]]
[[Category:American women historians]]
[[Category:Women from Sikkim]]
[[Category:American women autobiographers]]
[[Category:Madeira School alumni]]
[[Category:Yale University faculty]]
[[Category:Indian Anglicans]]
[[Category:20th-century American Episcopalians]]
[[Category:21st-century American Episcopalians]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Iran]]
[[Category:Chapin School (Manhattan) alumni]]
[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]
[[Category:American women columnists]]
[[Category:20th-century American women]]
[[Category:Remarried queens consort]]
[[Category:Exiled royalty]]
[[Category:Princesses by marriage]]
[[Category:Himalayan studies]]

Hope Cooke - Revision history

Flightsvilla at 18:16, 19 April 2026