Supayagyi (Burmese: စုဖုရားကြီး; 1854 – 25 February 1912), also spelt Suphayagyi, was the penultimate chief queen consort of the Konbaung dynasty, and was married to Thibaw Min, the last monarch in the dynasty.
| Supayagyi စုဖုရားကြီး | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chief queen consort of Burma | |
| Tenure | 30 October 1878 – 12 April 1879 |
| Predecessor | Thiri Pawara Maha Yazeinda Yadana Dewi |
| Successor | Supayalat |
| Princess of Mong Nawng | |
| Tenure | 1854 – 1878 |
| Successor | disestablished |
| Born | 1854 Mandalay, Burma |
| Died | 25 February 1912 (aged 57–58) Mingun, British Burma |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Thibaw |
| Issue | None |
| House | Konbaung |
| Father | King Mindon |
| Mother | Hsinbyumashin |
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
Early life
editSupayagyi, born in 1854[1] as Hteiksu Phayagyi (ထိပ်စုဖုရားကြီး), was the eldest of three daughters between King Mindon and Hsinbyumashin. She was a full-blooded sister of Supayalat and Supayalay. She received the appanage of Mong Nawng and was therefore known as the Princess of Mong Nawng, with the royal title of Susīriratanamaṅgaladevī.[2]
Coronation
editThe ambitious Hsinbyumashin, after placing Thibaw on the throne, offered her oldest daughter Hteik Supayagyi, to be his queen. During the royal Aggamahesi coronation, Supayalat pushed in next to her sister to be anointed queen at the same time, breaking an ancient royal custom. This resulted in two queens being anointed in parallel, a situation that had never occurred before in the history of Burma. Her marriage was never consummated, and Supayalat was known to have enforced monogamy on a Burmese king for the first and last time in history, despite Thibaw later marrying her youngest sister, Supayalay, Princess of Yamethin.
Exile
edit
The royal family's reign lasted just seven years when Thibaw Min was defeated in the Third Anglo-Burmese War and forced to abdicate by the British in 1885. On 25 November 1885 they were taken away in a covered carriage, leaving Mandalay Palace by the southern gate of the walled city along the streets lined by British soldiers and their wailing subjects, to the River Irrawaddy where a steamboat called Thuriya (Sun) awaited. Supayagyi and the queen mother were sent to Tavoy (now Dawei).[3] She died with buddhist num life on 25 February 1912 in Mingun after her mother, who died in 1900.[1] Her remains were interred in the southern section of Shwedagon Pagoda in modern-day Yangon.[4]
References
edit- ^ a b Shah, Sudha (2012-06-14). The King In Exile : The Fall Of The Royal Family Of Burma. Harper Collins. ISBN 9789350295984.
- ^ Tun, Than. "Chronology of Mandalay" (PDF).
- ^ "Forty Years in Burma, by John Ebenezer Marks". anglicanhistory.org. Retrieved 2018-10-04.
- ^ "Not the right time to repatriate King Thibaw, says descendant". The Myanmar Times. Retrieved 2018-10-04.