Thibaw Min

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King Thibaw, alongside Queen Supayalat and her sister Princess Supayaji
The British, under General Prendergast, confront the King in the Third Burmese War (1885)

Thibaw Min ( Burmese : သီပေါ ‌ မင်း * January 1, 1859 in Mandalay , Burma; † December 19, 1916 in Ratnagiri , India ) was the last king of the Konbaung dynasty in Burma between 1878 and 1885 . His reign ended with the Burmese defeat by the British conquering army in 1885.

biography

Thibaw Min was a son of the Burmese King Mindon Min (r. 1853 to 1878). Most of his training was in a Buddhist monastery. His father made him Prince of Thibaw, one of the states in northern Burma.

Thibaw Min came to the throne with the help of a powerful widow of his father and ruled the country from his coronation on October 1, 1878 until his deposition on November 29, 1885. The decisions of the king, described as unworldly, were influenced in many ways by his power-conscious wife and Half-sister, Queen Supayalat (* 1859 - † 1925). At the time of his accession to the throne, the British occupation of Lower Burma had lasted three decades, and it was no secret that Thibaw Min wanted to liberate the territory from the British. Relations worsened when the king began to move closer to France in the early 1880s . In 1885 there was a crisis known as the "Great Shoe Question": the palace decreed that not only Burmese subjects had to take off their shoes before entering the rooms, but that the Europeans were also expected to do so . The British officials refused and were consequently banned from the capital in the north. Ultimately, Thibaw Min issued a proclamation that made it compulsory for all Burmese to liberate the South from the British.

This was the welcome occasion for the British colonial administration to portray the king as a tyrant and contract breaker, and to complete the final occupation of Burma. General Prendergast was ordered to conquer Upper Burma with 11,000 men, light boats and elephants. They reached the capital with little resistance and forced the king to abdicate. He was sent into exile with his wife Supayalat and some members of the royal court, first to Ceylon and finally to Ratnagiri (near Bombay ), India, where he died in 1916.

The Indian author Amitav Ghosh describes in his novel The Glass Palace the circumstances of Thibaw's deposition and his time in Indian exile.

family

Thibaw Min had eight children, six of whom were born in Burma and two in India. His first four children died at a young age in the palace to the smallpox . The oldest surviving child was Princess ( Myat Phaya ) Gyi (* 1882; † 1947), followed by her younger sister Princess ( Myat Phaya ) Lat (* 1884; † 1956).

swell

  1. ↑ http://www.bridica.com/eb/article-9072115/Thibaw
  2. ↑ Mandalay Palace, Directorate of Archaeological Survey, Burma 1963
  3. ↑ Der Glaspalast (orig. The Glass Palace), Amitav Ghosh, Blessing 2000

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personal data
SURNAME Thibaw Min
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King in Burma
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Mandalay , Burma
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 1916
Place of death Ratnagiri , India