Baw Law Kyan Daw ( my, ဘောလောကျန်းထော, ; 1383 – 1390) was the first child of King

Razadarit Razadarit ( mnw, ရာဇာဓိရာတ်,The spelling "ရာဇာဓိရာတ်" per ''Slapat Rajawan'' (Schmidt 1906: 118) and the 1485 Shwedagon Pagoda inscription (Pan Hla 2005: 368, footnote 1). Nai Pan Hla's ''Razadarit Ayedawb ...

of Hanthawaddy Pegu. The prince is best known for his famous oath before his execution on the orders of his father that he shall be reborn to fight against his father if he were innocent. Razadarit was concerned that the young prince would later raise a rebellion against him as he had driven the prince's mother Queen

Tala Mi Daw Tala Mi Daw ( my, တလမည်ဒေါ, ; also တလမေဒေါ; 1368 – 1390) was the first wife of King Razadarit of Hanthawaddy. She was a half-sister of Razadarit and a daughter of King Binnya U by queen Sanda Dewi.Pan Hla 2005: 16 ...

to commit suicide, and feared that the young prince would one day avenge for his mother's death. The people of Hanthawaddy and the people of rival

Kingdom of Ava The Kingdom of Ava ( my, အင်းဝခေတ်, ) was the dominant kingdom that ruled upper Burma (Myanmar) from 1364 to 1555. Founded in 1365, the kingdom was the successor state to the petty kingdoms of Myinsaing, Pinya and Sagaing th ...

widely believed that Prince

Minye Kyawswa Minye Kyawswa ( my, မင်းရဲကျော်စွာ, ; also Minyekyawswa and Minrekyawswa; January 1391 – 13 March 1415) was crown prince of Ava from 1406 to 1415, and commander-in-chief of Ava's military from 1410 to 1415. H ...

of Ava was the

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...

of Baw Law Kyan Daw, fulfilling the prophecy of the oath.

Execution

Razadarit eventually ordered the execution of his own son at a young age. Razadarit was in Bassein (Pathein) when he ordered the execution of his eldest child, only about seven years old, who was in

Pegu Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. Etymology The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon lang ...

(Bago).Phayre 1873: 47–55 It was April 1390.According to the main Burmese chronicles ''

Maha Yazawin The ''Maha Yazawin'', fully the ''Maha Yazawindawgyi'' ( my, မဟာ ရာဇဝင်တော်ကြီး, ) and formerly romanized as the ,. is the first national chronicle of Burma/Myanmar. Completed in 1724 by U Kala, a historian at ...

'' (Maha Yazawin Vol. 1 2006: 299) and ''

Hmannan Yazawin ''Hmannan Maha Yazawindawgyi'' ( my, မှန်နန်း မဟာ ရာဇဝင်တော်ကြီး, ; commonly, ''Hmannan Yazawin''; known in English as the '' Glass Palace Chronicle'') is the first official chronicle of Konbaung ...

'' (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 427), the prince was executed in 751 ME (28 March 1389 to 28 March 1390). But ''

Razadarit Ayedawbon ''Razadarit Ayedawbon'' ( my, ရာဇာဓိရာဇ် အရေးတော်ပုံ) is a Burmese chronicle covering the history of Ramanya from 1287 to 1421. The chronicle consists of accounts of court intrigues, rebellions, diplomat ...

'' (Pan Hla 2005: 195) and ''

Yazawin Thit ''Maha Yazawin Thit'' ( my, မဟာ ရာဇဝင် သစ်, ; ; also known as ''Myanmar Yazawin Thit'' or ''Yazawin Thit'') is a national chronicle of Burma (Myanmar). Completed in 1798, the chronicle was the first attempt by the Konbau ...

'' (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 429) give 752 ME (29 March 1390 to 28 March 1391). Since Minye Kyawswa was born in 752 ME, it means Bawlawkyantaw died in early 752 ME ( April 1390). The king's executioners took the prince to the

Shwemawdaw Pagoda The Shwemawdaw Pagoda ( my, ရွှေမောဓော ဘုရား ; mnw, ကျာ်မုဟ်တ ) is a stupa located in Bago, Myanmar. It is often referred to as the Golden God Temple. At in height, the Shwemadaw holds the record f ...

. The young prince was imprisoned for three days at the pagoda during which he was said to have reread the Abhidhamma (part of

Buddhist scriptures Buddhist texts are those religious texts which belong to the Buddhist tradition. The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts a ...

).Harvey 1925: 114–115 According to chronicles, on the day of his execution, the young prince swore an oath that would enter into Burmese history: :''I do not plot against my father. Neither is there any fault in me. My father and mother played together as children. When she grew to womanhood, he took her beauty and then cast her away. She was a king's daughter, but he used her like a slavewoman and drove her to an evil death... :''... If I am guilty of treason by thought, word or deed, may I suffer in the fires of the nether regions for a thousand cycle times. If I am innocent, may I be reborn in the dynasty of Ava kings, and may I become the scourge of my father.''Htin Aung 1967: 90–91Standard chronicles (Maha Yazawin Vol. 1 2006: 299) and (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 427) say the prince wished to destroy the kingdom of Mons. ''Razadarit Ayedawbon'' (Pan Hla 2005: 195) says the prince swore to fight his father (not the kingdom of Mons). Razadarit was greatly disturbed when he heard of the terrible oath. In the superstitious world of Burmese politics, he was alarmed when Shin Mi-Nauk, the wife of Prince Min Swe of Ava fetched to eat various foods from Lower Burma before she became pregnant. She gave birth to Minye Kyawswa a year after Baw Law Kyan Daw's death. Indeed, Minye Kyawswa would later grow up to be Razadarit's nemesis.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{s-end Hanthawaddy dynasty Burmese people of Mon descent