Setkya Dewi ( my, စကြာဒေဝီ; sa, Cakrádévī; 22 December 1813 – 12 November 1876), commonly known by her

regnal title A regnal title is the title held by a monarch while in office. Monarchs can have various titles, including king or queen, prince or princess (Sovereign Prince of Monaco), emperor or empress (Emperor of Japan, Emperor of India), or even duke or gran ...

Thiri Pavara Mahayazeinda Yadana Dewi ( my, သီရိပဝရ မဟာရာဇိန္ဒာ ရတနာဒေဝီ; pi, Siripavaramahārajindaratanadevī), was the empress consort and chief wife of King

Mindon Min Mindon Min ( my, မင်းတုန်းမင်း, ; 1808 – 1878), born Maung Lwin, was the penultimate King of Burma (Myanmar) from 1853 to 1878. He was one of the most popular and revered kings of Burma. Under his half brother King P ...

during the

Konbaung dynasty The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...

. She had strong influence with her husband and was renowned for her knowledge of modern science and

astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

. She was popular with the British, who described her as a well-educated woman (a "

bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' is a term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic Elizabeth Montagu (1718–1800), the "Queen of the Blues", including E ...

"), and visitors would often bring her gifts related to her astrological interests. She was also known for her extraordinary kindness.

Biography

Setkya Devi was born on 22 December 1813 to King Tharrawaddy and his consort Kyapin Mibaya. She had seven siblings, five of whom died young; King Pagan was her younger brother. She was granted the

appanages An appanage, or apanage (; french: apanage ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture. It was common in much ...

Sagaing Sagaing (, ) is the former capital of the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. It is located in the Irrawaddy River, to the south-west of Mandalay on the opposite bank of the river. Sagaing with numerous Buddhist monasteries is an important religious and m ...

Myedu Myedu ( my, မြေဒူးမြို့ ) is a small town located in Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region, Myanmar (Burma). The town was the fief of King Hsinbyushin (r. 1763–1776) of Konbaung Dynasty The Konbaung dynasty ( my, က� ...

, Kyangyun, Tharawaddy, and Della in fief from 1837 to 1851, which was later exchanged for Taunbaing in 1852. She was chosen as the Tabindaing Princess (who always remained unmarried in order to become the chief queen of the next monarch), or as the Einshe Hteik Hta Mibaya (Queen of the Crown Prince, အိမ်ရှေ့ထိပ်ထား မိဖုရား), by her father. She acted as an adviser to her father and even had the authority to acquit people of crimes, a power which she kept until the reign of King Mindon. Through her intervention, fifteen people were absolved of their guilt, including

Myawaddy Mingyi U Sa Myawaddy Mingyi U Sa ( my, မြဝတီမင်းကြီး ဦးစ, ; 28 October 1766 – 6 August 1853) was a Konbaung-era Burmese poet, composer, playwright, general and statesman. In a royal service career that spanned over six ...

Hsinbyumashin Hsinbyumashin ( my, ဆင်ဖြူမရှင်; 22 November 1821 – 26 February 1900) was a senior queen of King Mindon Min during the Konbaung dynasty. She was the daughter of King Bagyidaw and his consort Nanmadaw Me Nu (Chief Queen of ...

, Yaw Mingyi U Po Hlaing and Hlaing Hteik Khaung Tin. The acquittal of Yaw Mingyi, in particular, proved fruitful.

Death

She died in 1876 and was buried in the Mandalay Palace stockade. After her death, King Mindon paid her the respect of allowing no one to either enter her palace or comb his hair. As signs of grief he dressed in pure white and lived near her tomb, which was the third erected within the sacred precincts of the Palace, the first being that of Khin The (the Queen of the Northern Palace), the favourite wife of King Mindon.

Biography

Death

References

See also