Mindon Min
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Mindon Min
Mindon Min (reigned 1852-1878) was the most able - and modern - of the Konbaung kings, the last Burmese dynasty. Eight years after his death, however, that portion of Burma still under Burmese rule fell to Britain as a result of the Third Anglo-Burmese War.
Half brother of King Pagan Min, who occupied the throne at the start of the short Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852, Mindon Min was opposed to the war and, with others, displaced Pagan and sought to achieve an honorable settlement with the British and to minimize the possibility of further Burmese territory falling under British control. The 1852 war had resulted from provocative behavior by the governor of a Burmese province and had given the British just the pretext they wanted to extend their presence in Burma.
Mindon Min, who had left the Buddhist monkhood for the throne in a sincere bid for peace, signalized his goodwill by releasing all Europeans imprisoned by the Burmese. Such a gesture hardly halted the momentum of dynamic British imperialism, however, and Britain acquired as a consequence of its second war with the Burmese the rest of Lower Burma (to add to what it had obtained in the First Anglo-Burmese War a quarter century earlier) including the delta region and territory extending beyond Prome and Toungoo.
The spirit of the Burmese in Burmese-and British-ruled Burma was much sapped by the loss of so much territory in two successive wars. King Mindon Min sought to counter this loss of morale by three means: pursuit of correct and nonprovocative relations with the British, modernization of his backward country's economy, and establishment of the Burmese-ruled portion of Burma as a major world center of the Buddhist faith.
In 1871, Mindon Min, scholarly as well as devoutly religious in his Buddhism, convened at Mandalay (to which he had moved the Burmese capital) the fifth international synod, or council, of the world's Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhists - which further heightened his stature in the eyes of his countrymen. He also modernized the administration of government by establishing a European-style system of fixed salaries in place of the traditional way of assigning districts for the upkeep of officials. And he inaugurated a coinage system and improved communications.
The murder of the heir apparent to the Burmese throne in 1866 caused King Mindon not to designate another successor, and in a country without an orderly monarchical succession pattern, this was probably the greatest mistake of his regime. When Mindon Min died in 1878, a palace plot placed on the throne the extraordinarily unqualified Prince Thibaw, whose incompetence was to be a factor in the replacement of the Burmese Konbaung dynasty in 1885 by the extension of British colonial rule to all parts of Burma.
Further Reading
The Burmese historian Maung Htin Aung treats Mindon Min sympathetically but faithfully in two books, The Stricken Peacock: Anglo-Burmese Relations, 1752-1948 (1965) and A History of Burma (1967). The greatest of the Konbaung monarchs is also viewed favorably by the English historian D. G. E. Hall in two of his works, Burma (1950; 3d. ed. 1960) and Europe and Burma (1945). Mindon Min's rule is described and evaluated, too, by John F. Cady in A History of Modern Burma (1958) and by Dorothy Woodman in The Making of Burma (1962).
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Mindon Min
| Mindon မင်းတုန်းမင်း |
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Prince of Mindon |
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| Reign | 18 February 1853 – 1 October 1878 (25 years, 225 days)[1] |
| Coronation | 6 July 1854 |
| Predecessor | Pagan |
| Successor | Thibaw |
| Consort | Shwepayagyi 62 queens in total |
| Issue | |
| 110 children including: Thibaw | |
| Full name | |
| Maung Lwin မောင်လွင် Siri Pavara Vizara Nanda Yasapandita Mahadhammarajatiraja (သီရိ ပဝရ ဝိဇရာ နန္ဒ ယသပဏ္ဍိတ မဟာမမ္မရာဇာတိရာဇာ) |
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| House | Konbaung |
| Father | Tharrawaddy |
| Mother | Me Nu, Queen of South Palace |
| Born | 8 July 1808 Amarapura |
| Died | 1 October 1878 (aged 70) Mandalay |
| Burial | Mandalay Palace |
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
Mindon Min (Burmese: မင်းတုန်းမင်း, pronounced: [mɪ́ɴdóʊɴ mɪ́ɴ]; 8 July 1808 – 1 October 1878) was the penultimate king of Burma (Myanmar) from 1853 to 1878.[1] He was one of the most popular and revered kings of Burma. Under his half brother King Pagan, the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852 ended with the annexation of Lower Burma by the British Empire. Mindon and his younger brother Kanaung overthrew their half brother King Pagan. He spent most of his reign trying to defend the upper portion of his country from British encroachments, and to modernize his kingdom.
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Achievements
King Mindon founded the last royal capital of Burma, Mandalay, in 1857. His younger brother Kanaung proved to be a great administrator and modernizer. During Mindon's reign, scholars were sent to France, Italy, the United States, and Great Britain, in order to learn about the tremendous progress achieved by the Industrial Revolution.
During Mindon's reign, the following reforms were undertaken: centralization of the kingdom's internal administration, introduction of a salary system for the bureaucracy (to dampen the authority and income of bureaucrats), fixed judicial fees, comprehensive penal laws, reorganization of the financial system, removal of trade barriers including custom duties, reform of the thathameda taxes (to increase direct taxation), and modernization of the kingdom's army and introduction of new police forces.[2]
Mindon introduced the first machine-struck coins to Burma, and in 1871 also held the Fifth Buddhist council in Mandalay. He had already created the world's largest book in 1868, the Tipitaka, 729 pages of the Buddhist Pali Canon inscribed in marble and each stone slab housed in a small stupa at the Kuthodaw Pagoda at the foot of Mandalay Hill.
In 1871 Mindon also donated a new hti ('umbrella' or crown gilded and encrusted with precious diamonds and other gems) to the 105-metre-tall (344 ft) Shwedagon Pagoda, which is located in then British held Yangon, although he was not allowed to visit this most famous and venerated pagoda in the country.
On 15 August 1873, Mindon also enacted the Seventeen Articles, one of Southeast Asia's first indigenous press freedom laws.[3]
In 18754, during a royal consecration ceremony, Mindon took on the title Siripavaravijayanantayasa Pandita Tribhavanadityadhipati Mahadhammarajadhiraja.[4]
With the opening of the Suez Canal, Mindon assembled a flotilla of steamers to facilitate trade with the British.
His brother Kanaung is still remembered by the Burmese as an avid modernizer, who would go to the factories early on cold winter mornings with a blanket wrapped around, just to talk to the mechanics about how the machines ran. He was in charge of the Royal Army, as was customarily required of Burmese crown princes, and he imported and manufactured guns, cannons and shells.
Palace rebellion
During an unsuccessful palace rebellion on 18 June 1866 by Princes Myinkun and Myinkhondaing (sons of King Mindon, jealous for not being named successor, and backed by the British who were alarmed by Kanaung's modernization of the Burmese Royal Armies), the crown prince was assassinated. The two princes fled to British Burma, and were granted asylum by the British.
King Mindon himself got away in an extraordinary manner, which the Burmese regarded as a sign of his hpon (a sum of past good deeds that affect one's present life). He ran into the very person who was assigned to kill him and whom he recognised, but on encountering the king face to face, the man dropped his sword and dropped on his knees from force of habit. The king was then promptly offered a piggy-back ride by his would-be assassin and escaped towards the barracks of his loyal guards.
Succession crisis
The rebellion caused Mindon great reluctance in naming a successor to Kanaung for fear of civil war.
One of his queens, Hsinbyumashin, dominated the last days of King Mindon. It was an edict by Hsinbyumashin that ordered almost all possible heirs to the throne be killed, so that her daughter Supayalat and son-in-law Thibaw would become queen and king. Close royals of all ages and both genders were mercilessly executed, after being tricked that the dying king wanted to bid them farewell.
Thibaw, Mindon's son from a lesser queen, succeeded him after his death in 1878. King Thibaw was defeated by the British in the Third Anglo-Burmese War in November 1885 resulting in total annexation of Burma.
References
- ^ a b Christopher Buyers. "The Konbaung Dynasty Genealogy: King Mindon". royalark.net. http://www.royalark.net/Burma/konbau13.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-04.
- ^ Candier, Aurore (December 2011). "Conjuncture and Reform in the Late Konbaung Period". Journal of Burma Studies 15 (2). http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_burma_studies/v015/15.2.candier.html.
- ^ "Chronology of Burma's Laws Restricting Freedom of Opinion, Expression and the Press". The Irrawaddy. 1 May 2004. http://www.irrawaddy.org/research_show.php?art_id=3534. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
- ^ Hpo Hlaing (2004). Rajadhammasangaha. L.E. Bagshawe (translator). http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/THE_RAJADHAMMASANGAHA.pdf.
External links
Media related to Mindon Min at Wikimedia Commons
- The Largest Stone Buddha Image by Dr. Khin Maung Nyunt: [1]
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Mindon Min
Born: 8 July 1808 Died: 1 October 1878 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Pagan |
King of Burma 18 February 1853 – 1 October 1878 |
Succeeded by Thibaw |
| Royal titles | ||
| Preceded by |
Prince of Mindon | Succeeded by |
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