Taw Sein Ko

Taw Sein Ko (; ; 7 December 1864 – 29 May 1930) was Burma's first recorded archaeologist. He spent over 32 years in various government services, and ended his career in 1919 as the Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey of Burma. He was the son of a Burmese Chinese father with ancestry from Amoy, China, Taw Sein Sun (杜成孫) who worked in shipping operations along the Burmese coast in the 1840s. His mother Daw Nu was probably a Mon lady. Later, their family went north. Taw's father became a well-known merchant in Bhamo. Taw married to the daughter of Tan Htun (who died in October 1910), a merchant in Rangoon.

Taw studied in "Mandalay's Dr. Marks School" together with the princes of the Royal House of Konbaung, including Prince Thibaw in 1871. In 1886, he wrote Maung Po: A Product of Western Civilization.

Throughout the 1880s to 1910s, Taw was a prominent advocate of university education and education of women in Burma and lobbied for prioritising Buddhist education in the British-led state curriculum. He was also instrumental in re-instituting nationwide Buddhist scripture examinations in Pali for Buddhist monks in 1895 and the appointment and election of a Buddhist Supreme Patriarch in 1903.

In 1903, Taw was awarded the Gold Kaisar-i-Hind Medal from Delhi Durbar. On 12 December 1911, King George V bestowed upon him the Imperial Service Order.