Mindon Min
Mindon Min ( Burmese မင်းတုန်းမင်း ; born July 8, 1808 in Amarapura , † October 1, 1878 in Ava ) was the penultimate king of Burma from 1853 until his death. He was also one of the most popular and most revered kings in the country.
biography
During the reign of his half-brother Pagan Min (1848 to 1853), the Second British-Burmese War was ended, in which the English annexed Lower Burma . King Mindon and his younger brother Ka Naung overpowered their two half-brothers Pagan and sought peace with the English. For most of his reign, Mindon Min sought to curb the English conquest and modernize his country.
King Mindon established the last royal capital in Burma, Mandalay , in 1854 . Installed as Crown Prince, Ka Naung proved to be a born administrator and modernizer. During Mindon Min's reign, numerous academics were sent to France , Italy , the United States of America, and Great Britain to study the overwhelming progress brought about by the industrial revolution .
Mindon Min was the first to set up a machine-operated mint and also held the 5th Buddhist Congress in Mandalay. The Congress produced the largest book in the world, the Tipitaka , with 729 pages of the Buddhist Pali canon . Each of the pages was written on a marble slab that was kept in a small stupa at the Kuthodaw Pagoda at the foot of Mandalay Hill.
Mindon Min also donated a new Hti (“umbrella” or crown with gold-plated material adorned with precious stones) for the more than 100-meter-high Shwedagon Pagoda , which is located in Rangoon , which was ruled by the British at the time . However, he was not allowed to visit the pagoda.
During an otherwise unsuccessful palace rebellion by Princes Myin Kun and Myin Khondaing on June 18, 1866, which was instigated by the British, Ka Naung was killed and Mindon Min was able to save his life by a hair's breadth. The princes were able to flee to the British and received an amnesty there. This caused Mindon Min not to name a successor. One of his queens, Hsinbyumashin , ruled the ruler's last days. She ordered the assassination of almost all members of the royal family so that her daughter Supayalat and son-in-law Thibaw Min could ascend to the throne. Close relatives of the royal family were mercilessly murdered after they had been lured into a trap on the pretext that the king would bid them farewell before he died.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mindon Min |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | မင်းတုန်းမင်း (Burmese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | King of Burma |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 8, 1808 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Amarapura |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 1, 1878 |
| Place of death | Ava |