Kyaing Kyaing () is the former

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

of Myanmar, the wife of former dictator

Than Shwe Than Shwe ( my, သန်းရွှေ, ; born 2 February 1933 or 3 May 1935) is a Burmese strongman politician who was the head of state of Myanmar from 1992 to 2011 as Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). During this ...

who was the head of state of Burma from 1992 to 2011 as Chairman of the

State Peace and Development Council The State Peace and Development Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် အေးချမ်းသာယာရေး နှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး ကောင်စီ ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the offi ...

(SPDC). She became

of the country when her

spouse A spouse is a significant other in a marriage. In certain contexts, it can also apply to a civil union or common-law marriage. Although a spouse is a form of significant other, the latter term also includes non-marital partners who play a social ...

became the Head of the State and Government. She is considered most poweful woman in her time, often enjoyed great power that was derived from her husband's favor. Kyaing Kyaing is a honorary patron of the

Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation () is a non-governmental organisation based in Myanmar in promoting the welfare and advancement of Burmese women. This organisation is noticed by UN, WWF, Asia Regional Cooperation to Prevent People Trafficki ...

Early life and family

Kyaing Kyaing was born in Kaw Kyaik Township,

Kayin State Kayin State ( my, ကရင်ပြည်နယ်, ; kjp, ဖၠုံခါန်ႋကၞင့်, italics=no; ksw, ကညီကီၢ်စဲၣ်, ), also known by the endonyms Kawthoolei and Karen State, is a state of Myanmar. The ...

, Myanmar. She is of

Pa-O , native_name_lang = my , image = Pa O Tribe Kalaw Shan Myanmar.jpg , caption = A Pa'O woman near Kalaw, southern Shan State , population = 1,400,000 (2014 est.) , popplace = Myanmar, Thailand , rels ...

descent. She is the fifth daughter of nine siblings. She was educated in

Moulmein Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at th ...

. They have five daughters, Aye Aye Thit Shwe, Dewa Shwe, Khin Pyone Shwe, Kyi Kyi Shwe, and Thandar Shwe, and three sons, Kyaing San Shwe, Thant Zaw Shwe and Htun Naing Shwe.

Political influence

Kyaing Kying is said to share her husband’s superstitious ways, and she has been seen sometimes taking on the role of a mystic medium. She oversees the preparation of all her husband’s meals. Nobody gets to meet Than Shwe without her approval. Government and military position appointments also have to meet with her approval. Her hire-and-fire influence reportedly nets her big rewards: luxury homes in new housing developments and business concessions. Myanmar's business community say that as the Burmese New Year approached, Kyaing Kyaing demanded from them gifts worth at least 6 billion kyat ($5 million), reported the

Democratic Voice of Burma The Democratic Voice of Burma ( my, ဒီမိုကရေတစ်မြန်မာ့အသံ, abbreviated DVB) is one of Myanmar's largest independent media organisations. DVB was founded as a non-profit media organization based in Osl ...

. She displayed signs of delusions of grandeur, expecting people to address her as "your majesty" and to drop to their knees in her presence. She suspected that she had a hand in the mob attack on the pro-democracy activists and her supporters in May 2003.

''Yadaya'' rituals

She visited the Shit Myet Hna Pagoda in her husband’s birthplace,

Kyaukse Kyaukse ( my, ကျောက်ဆည် မြို့, ) is town and capital of Kyaukse District in Mandalay Region, Myanmar. Lying on the Zawgyi River, 25 miles (40 km) south of Mandalay, it is served by the Mandalay-Yangon (Rangoon) railway ...

for a ''yadaya'' ritual. The revered site is known as the "Eight Faces" pagoda because it faces eight points of the compass. Kyaing Kyaing is reported to have prayed symbolically there for support from all sides for her beleaguered husband and his despised regime. In 2009, Kyaing Kyaing donated and placed the diamond and jewel encrusted hti, the seinbudaw (diamond orb), and the hngetmyatnadaw (pennant-shaped vane), atop the uppermost part of the 2,300-year-old Danok Pagoda. Many people believed that the ceremony was a yadaya and seeking divine blessings for her husband's glory. However, the pagoda collapsed, killing at least 20 people and injuring about 150

References

{{s-end First Ladies of Myanmar Spouses of prime ministers of Myanmar Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Family of Than Shwe