Balamindin ( my, ဗလမင်းထင်, or ) was a
general
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
in the Burmese army of the
Konbaung Dynasty
The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...
. He is best known in Burmese history for his spirited defense
Fort Kaungton against repeated attacks by numerically superior
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
invasion forces in the
Sino-Burmese War (1765–1769)
The Sino-Burmese War (; my, တရုတ်-မြန်မာ စစ် (၁၇၆၅–၆၉)), also known as the Qing invasions of Burma or the Myanmar campaign of the Qing dynasty, was a war fought between the Qing dynasty of China and ...
. From 1766 to 1769, Balamindin commanded the fort. The determined resistance by the Burmese at Kaungton proved critical in stopping the last three Chinese invasions. After the war, he was made governor of Kaungton.
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Background
Balamindin was born Maung Lwin in the Moksobo
Shwebo ( my, ရွှေဘိုမြို့ ) is a city in Sagaing Region, Burma, 110 km north-west of Mandalay between the Irrawaddy and the Mu rivers. The city was the origin of the Konbaung Dynasty, established by King Alaungpaya ...
region (present-day Shwebo District) in Upper Burma. He joined Alaungpaya
Alaungpaya ( my, အလောင်းဘုရား, ; also spelled Alaunghpaya or Alaung-Phra; 11 May 1760) was the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). By the time of his death from illness during his campaign in Siam, this f ...
's resistance forces to the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom's invasion forces in 1752. Lwin was selected as one of 68 elite commanders that would become the core leadership of Konbaung armies for the next thirty years. He served with distinction in Alaungpaya's reunification campaigns, first achieving the title Ye Kyaw Thura, and then Balamindin.[
After Alaungpaya's death in 1760, Balamindin became allied with Alaungpaya's brother Thado Thinkhathu, governor of ]Toungoo
Taungoo (, ''Tauñngu myoú''; ; also spelled Toungoo) is a district-level city in the Bago Region of Myanmar, 220 km from Yangon, towards the north-eastern end of the division, with mountain ranges to the east and west. The main industry ...
(Taungoo). In 1762, Thinkhathu revolted against King Naungdawgyi
Dabayin Min ( my, ဒီပဲယင်းမင်း), commonly known as Naungdawgyi ( my, နောင်တော်ကြီး ; 10 August 1734 – 28 November 1763) was the second king of Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar), from 1760 to 1 ...
, and Balamindin supported the rebellion. Naungdawgyi's forces laid siege to Toungoo, and recaptured the city. Naungdawgyi pardoned his uncle Thinkhathu and Thinkhathu's deputies, including Balamindin.[Kyaw Thet, pp. 296-297]
See also
* Sino-Burmese War (1765–1769)
The Sino-Burmese War (; my, တရုတ်-မြန်မာ စစ် (၁၇၆၅–၆၉)), also known as the Qing invasions of Burma or the Myanmar campaign of the Qing dynasty, was a war fought between the Qing dynasty of China and ...
References
Burmese generals
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