Shin Myat Hla of Ava
Shin Myat Hla ရှင်မြတ်လှ | |
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Chief queen consort of Ava | |
Tenure | 20 May 1426 – c. April 1439 |
Predecessor | Shin Bo-Me |
Successor | Min Hla Nyet |
Duchess of Mohnyin | |
Tenure | c. April 1410 – 20 May 1426 |
Queen consort of Ava | |
Tenure | c. December 1409 – April 1410 |
Born |
c. April 1388 c. Kason 750 ME Taungdwin |
Died |
in or after 1439 Ava (Inwa) |
Spouse |
Minkhaung I Mohnyin Thado |
Issue |
Minye Kyawswa I of Ava Narapati I of Ava Shin Hla Myat of Pakhan Saw Hla Htut of Pagan |
House | Mohnyin |
Father | Thihapate II of Taungdwin[1] |
Mother | Princess of Myinsaing[1] |
Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
Shin Myat Hla (Burmese: ရှင်မြတ်လှ, pronounced: [ʃɪ̀ɴ mjaʔ l̥a̰]; also known as Shin Mi-Myat[2] or Me Myat Hla[3]) was the chief queen consort of King Mohnyin Thado of Ava (now Burma) from 1426 to 1439. She was also a junior queen of King Minkhaung I of Ava for five months in 1409–10. She was the mother of kings Minye Kyawswa I and Narapati I of Ava. She was also an eight-times great grandmother of King Alaungpaya of Konbaung Dynasty.[3]
Brief
Shin Myat Hla was descended from Pinya and Pagan royal lines. Her father Thihapate II was a grandson of King Thihathu of Ava, and her mother was a great-great granddaughter of King Kyawswa of Pagan. She was born in early 1388.[note 1] She grew up in Taungdwin which her father had ruled since at least 1364.[note 2] She had at least one elder half-brother, the father of Shin Bo-Me.[note 3]
Her cloistered upbringing changed drastically in 1409. She was married off to King Minkhaung I of Ava. (She was following in the footsteps of her niece Shin Bo-Me, who became a queen of Minkhaung in 1407.) But five months into the marriage, in late 1409/early 1410,[4] the king gave her to Min Nansi, then a commander in his army, as a reward for the commander's performance in then ongoing war with Pegu.[2] Furthermore, the couple was sent off to Mohnyin, a rebellion-prone Shan state (in present-day Kachin State), where her new husband was appointed sawbwa (chief; essentially governor-general). Over the next 16 years, her husband came to be known as "Mohnyin Thado" (Prince of Mohnyin). The couple had four children (two sons and two daughters): Minye Kyawswa, Narapati, Shin Hla Myat of Pakhan, and Saw Hla Htut of Pagan (Bagan).[5]
Myat Hla became queen of Ava again—this time as the chief queen, succeeding her niece Bo-Me—in 1426 when Mohnyin Thado seized the Ava throne.[6] She remained the chief queen for the entire duration of Mohnyin's reign (1426–39).[note 4]
Her two sons became kings of Ava. Her eldest child Minye Kyawswa reigned from 1439 to 1442 while her second child Narapati reigned from 1442 to 1468. In all, her descendants ruled Ava until 1527.[7] King Alaungpaya, the founder of Konbaung Dynasty, was an 11th generation descendant of the queen.[3]
Ancestry
The following is her ancestry as given in the Hmannan Yazawin chronicle.[note 5]
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Notes
- ↑ (Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 236): According to the inscription at the Pagan Shwe Kyaung (Golden Monastery) donated by the queen herself, she was 22 (in her 23rd year) when she was married to Thado who was 30 (31st year); and she was 50 (51st year) when her husband of 29 years Thado died at age 59 (60th year). Since they were married in c. April 1410 (at the end of the 1409–10 campaign) and Thado died in 1439, she was born c. April 1388.
- ↑ (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 398, 400): Her father declared himself king with the title of Thet-taw-shay Thihapate when the Pinya Kingdom collapsed in 1364. He submitted to the new king, Thado Minbya, in the dry season of 1366–67, only after the latter had laid siege to Taungdwin. According to inscriptional evidence, Thihapate was still governor of Taungdwin in 1402 per (Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 63).
- ↑ (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 372): Her mother was not the first wife of her father, whose first wife was Saw Myat, a sister of King Swa Saw Ke of Ava. Thihapate and Saw Myat had at least one son, named Theingathu (or Theinkhathu).
- ↑ The obituary section of King Mohnyin in (Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 75–77) states only her as the chief queen. Furthermore, she was still alive in 1438 per (Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 75).
- ↑ See (Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 62) and (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 372). Note: both her father and paternal grandfather had the title Thihapate; her father's personal name was Saw Hnaung, and her grandfather's was Pwint Hla Oo. Also note that her maternal grandfather Thet-taw-shay of Myinsaing is referred to as a son-in-law of King Thihathu while her maternal grandmother's name is left unreported. Since King Thihathu died in 1325, the maternal grandmother was unlikely to have been Thihathu's daughter. It is likely that Myat Hla's maternal grandmother was another wife of Thet-taw-shay.
References
Bibliography
- Htin Aung, Maung (1967). A History of Burma. New York and London: Cambridge University Press.
- Letwe Nawrahta and Twinthin Taikwun (c. 1770). Hla Thamein, ed. Alaungpaya Ayedawbon (in Burmese) (1961 ed.). Ministry of Culture, Union of Burma.
- Maha Sithu (1798). Myint Swe (1st ed.); Kyaw Win, Ph.D. and Thein Hlaing (2nd ed.), eds. Yazawin Thit (in Burmese). 1–3 (2012, 2nd printing ed.). Yangon: Ya-Pyei Publishing.
- Royal Historical Commission of Burma (1832). Hmannan Yazawin (in Burmese). 1–3 (2003 ed.). Yangon: Ministry of Information, Myanmar.
Shin Myat Hla of Ava Born: 1388 Died: ? | ||
Royal titles | ||
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Preceded by Shin Bo-Me |
Chief queen consort of Ava 20 May 1426 – c. May 1439 |
Succeeded by Min Hla Nyet |