Shin Sawbu ( my, ရှင်စောပု, ; mnw, မိစဴဗု; 1394–1471) was queen regnant of
Hanthawaddy from 1454 to 1471. Queen Shin Sawbu is also known as Binnya Thau ( mnw, ဗညားထောဝ်; mnw, ဨကရာဇ်ဗြဲဗညာထဴ) or Old Queen in Mon. Queen Shin Sawbu and Queen
Jamadevi
Camadevi (also spelled Jamadevi; IPA: ʃaːmaˈdeːʋiː Pali: Cāmadevī; th, จามเทวี, , Mon: စာမ္မာဒေဝဳ, ; 7th-century – 8th-century) was the first ruler/Queen of Hariphunchai (Pali: Haribhuñjaya), which wa ...
of
Haripunjaya are the two most famous among the small number of queens who ruled in mainland
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
.
[Guillon 1999: 169]
Early life
Shin Sawbu was the only daughter of the Mon King
Razadarit who had two sons as well. She was born on 11 February 1394 (Wednesday, 12th waxing of Tabaung of 755 ME) to the junior queen
Thuddhamaya (). At birth she was given the name ( in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and
Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
). At age 20 she was married to Binnya Bwe (Smin Chesao), Razadarit's nephew and had a son,
Binnya Waru
Binnya Waru ( my, ဗညားဗရူး, ; Mon: ; c. 1418–1451) was the 12th king of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom in Burma from 1446 to 1451. He was a nephew and adopted son of King Binnya Ran I after whom he succeeded to the Hanthawaddy throne. ...
and two daughters, Netaka Taw and Netaka Thin. Her husband died when she was just 25.
Residence at Ava
In 1421, Sawbu's father King
Razadarit died. The king's eldest son
Binnya Dhammaraza
Binnya Dhammaraza ( mnw, ဗညာ ဓမ္မရာဇာ, my, ဗညား ဓမ္မရာဇာ, ; also spelled Banya Dhamma Yaza;Aung-Thwin 2017: 261 1393–1424) was king of Hanthawaddy Pegu from 1421 to 1424. His short reign was mark ...
ascended the throne but his younger brothers
Binnya Ran and
Binnya Kyan
Binnya Kyan ( my, ဗညားကျန်း, ; 1420–1453) was the 13th king of the Hanthawaddy Pegu Kingdom in Burma from 1451 to 1453. Binnya Kyan, son of King Binnya Dhammaraza, came to power after assassinating his cousin King Binnya Wa ...
rebelled. By the invitation of Binnya Kyan, King
Thihathu of Ava came down with an army in November 1423 (Natdaw 785 ME).
[Burmese chronicles do not agree on the invasion date. '']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 t ...
'' (Kala Vol. 2 2006: 58) says the invasion began in Natdaw 785 ME (4 Nov 1423 to 2 December 1423) but ''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 ...
'' (RHC Vol. 2 2003: 56) says it began a year earlier in Natdaw 784 ME (19 Oct 1422 to 16 November 1422). However the editors of the 2006 edition of ''Maha Yazawin'' side with the November 1423 date. Binnya Dhammaraza pacified his brothers by making Binnya Ran the crown prince as well as giving the governorship of the
Irrawaddy delta
The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Irrawaddy Division, the lowest expanse of land in Myanmar that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, to the south at the mouth of the ...
, and Binnya Kyan the governorship of Martaban. Crown Prince Binnya Ran in a gesture of peace presented his sister Shin Sawbu to Thihathu, who in turn presented a princess of Ava to marry Binnya Ran. It was December 1423.
[''Maha Yazawin'' (Kala Vol. 2 2006: 56) says Binnya Ran made the offer one month into the invasion. It means Pyatho 785 ME (2 December 1423 to 31 December 1423).]
When Shin Sawbu went to Ava, she was 29 years old, a widow and a mother with a son and two daughters. During the time she resided at Ava, she did not have any additional children.
[Harvey 1925: 116] King Thihathu was very fond of her but he died during a military expedition in the north in 1425. Shin Sawbu remained in Ava for four more years. During her residence at Ava, Shin Sawbu became the patron of two Mon monks, Dhammanyana and Pitakahara, who resided at the Ariyadhaza monastery at Sagaing near Ava. In 1429, at the age of 35, the queen escaped with the help of her Mon monk preceptors and returned to Pegu accompanied by them.
[Kala Vol. 2 2006: 58]
Reign at Pegu
![Shwedagon Crown](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Shwedagon_Crown.JPG)
All members of Pegu's male line to the throne having been exhausted, Shin Sawbu ascended the throne as queen in early 1454. Two of her brothers, Binnya Dhammayaza and Banya Ran I, and one of her sons, Binnya Waru, had already ruled as kings of Pegu.
In 1457, shortly after ascending the throne, the Buddhist world celebrated the two thousandth anniversary of the Buddha's
Paranirvana
In Buddhism, ''parinirvana'' (Sanskrit: '; Pali: ') is commonly used to refer to nirvana-after-death, which occurs upon the death of someone who has attained ''nirvana'' during their lifetime. It implies a release from '' '', karma and rebirth a ...
which in Southeast Asia is dated to the year 543 BCE.
After ruling Pegu for around seven years, in 1460 she decided to abdicate and move from Pegu to Dagon where she could lead a life of religious devotion next to the
Shwedagon pagoda.
[(Singer, 1992, p. 81)]
Shin Sawbu chose a monk to succeed her on the throne of Pegu. The monk Pitakahara, who had helped her escape from Ava, left the
sangha
Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...
, was given the titles Punnaraja and
Dhammazedi
Dhammazedi ( my, ဓမ္မစေတီ, ; c. 1409–1492) was the 16th king of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom in Burma from 1471 to 1492. Considered one of the most enlightened rulers in Burmese history, by some accounts call him "the greatest" of al ...
, and became her son-in-law and a suitable heir to the throne by marrying her younger daughter Mipakathin.
Reign at Dagon
Shin Sawbu lived in
Dagon
Dagon ( he, דָּגוֹן, ''Dāgōn'') or Dagan ( sux, 2= dda-gan, ; phn, 𐤃𐤂𐤍, Dāgān) was a god worshipped in ancient Syria across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many attes ...
next to the
Shwedagon Pagoda
The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ); mnw, ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်; officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' ( my, ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, , ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda is a gilded stupa ...
until the end of her life in 1471.
[ Even after she moved to Dagon she is said to have still worn a crown.][(Halliday, 2000, 101)]
The actually handing over of power from Shin Sawbu to Dhammazedi, who became king under the title Ramadhipati in the year 1457, is commemorated in an inscription written in the Mon language.
In Dagon, the queen devoted her time and attention to the Shwedagon pagoda, enlarging the platform around the pagoda, paving it with stones and placing stone posts and lamps around the outside of the pagoda. She extended the glebe lands
Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...
supporting the pagoda to Danok. Almost everything that Shin Sawbu did, she did in multiples of four:
"There were four white umbrellas, four golden alms-bowls, four earthenware vessels, and four offerings were made each day. There were twenty-seven men who prepared the lamps each day. There were twenty men as guardians of the pagoda treasury. There were four goldsmith's shops, four orchestras, four drums, four sheds, eight doorkeepers, four sweepers, and twenty lamp lighters. She built round and strengthened the sevenfold wall. Between the walls Her Majesty Banya Thau had them plant palmyra and coconut trees."
She also had her own weight in gold (25 viss) beaten out into gold leaf
Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...
and covered the Shwedagon pagoda with this gold leaf. The inhabitants of Dagon donated 5,000 viss of bronze to the pagoda.[(Halliday, 2000, p. 101)]
Stone inscriptions
Three inscriptions in stone have been found from Shin Sawbu's reign.
The first inscription known as Kyaikmaraw I commemorates a land dedication. On 25 September 1455 the queen dedicated land to the Kyaikmaraw pagoda that she had built. The inscription records that jewels, precious objects, and the revenues of a place named "Tko' Mbon" were given to the Moh Smin oyal Promontorypagoda at Myatheindan near Martaban
Mottama ( my, မုတ္တမမြို့, ; Muttama mnw, မုဟ်တၟံ, ; formerly Martaban) is a town in the Thaton District of Mon State, Myanmar. Located on the west bank of the Thanlwin river (Salween), on the opposite side ...
. The second part of the inscription provides benedictions for those coming to pay their respects to the pagoda and makes many references to Buddhist scripture. The third part of the inscription outlines the torments of hell. The inscription is rich in linguistic, religious, and historical information with Burmese linguistic influences and the word "caw" or "chao" meaning "lord" from a Tai language
The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages ( th, ภาษาไท or , transliteration: or ) are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including Standard Thai or S ...
used supposedly because "this title had been given to the Wareru
Wareru ( mnw, ဝါရေဝ်ရောဝ်, my, ဝါရီရူး, ; also known as Wagaru; 20 March 1253 – 14 January 1307) was the founder of the Martaban Kingdom, located in present-day Myanmar (Burma). By using both diplomatic a ...
dynasty by the Thai king."
Mon folk traditions
At the end of the nineteenth century, some Mons are said to have regarded the British Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
as the reincarnation of Shin Sawbu.
The story of how the queen chose a successor runs as follows. After ruling for only seven years, she decided to abdicate. She devised a method to choose which one of the two monks had accompanied her during her residence in Ava should succeed her as ruler:
"One morning when they came to receive the royal rice, she secreted in one of their bowls a pahso (layman’s dress) ale sarong, skirt-like dresstogether with little models of the five regalia; then having prayed that the lot might fall on the worthier, she returned the bowls. Dhammazedi. To whom the fateful bowl fell, left the sacred order, received her daughter in marriage, and assumed the government. The other monk in his disappointment aroused suspicion and was executed in Paunglin, north of Dagon. The lords also resented the choice at first but became reconciled owing to Dhammazedi’s high character; when some of them continued murmuring that he was not of royal race, Shinsawbu had a beam taken out of the and carved into a Buddha image, and showed it to them saying 'Ye say he is of common blood, he cannot be your King. See here this common wood – yesterday it was trodden in the dust of your feet, but to-day, is it not the Lord and do we not bow before it?'."
Singer provides an alternative story with the governor of Pathein, Binnya Ein, married to Shin Sawbu's elder daughter Mipakahtau, rebelling because he was not appointed king ahead of Dhammazedi. This rebellion ends when he is poisoned.
Baña Thau means "Old Queen" in the Mon language. Harvey relates the story of how this name originated taken from the "Thatonhnwemun Yazawin" chronicle:
"Once while being carried around the city in her gorgeous palanquin, sword in hand and crown on head, she heard an old man exclaim, as her retinue pushed him aside "I must get out of the way, must I? I am an old fool, am I? I am not so old that I could not get a child, which is more than your old queen could do!" Thunderstruck at such irreverence, she meekly accepted it as a sign from heaven, and thereafter styled herself 'The Old Queen'."
The Mon history Nidana Ramadhipati Katha provides an alternative story of how Baña Thau ended up living in Ava claiming that she was already ruling at Pegu as queen when she was abducted and brought to Ava and made chief queen.
Dispute over duration of reign
Some hold that Shin Sawbu ruled for seven years, others seventeen years. Shorto first hypothesized that she might have ruled jointly with Dhammazedi. Guillon holds that Sawbu and Dhammazedi ruled jointly with Dhammazedi ruling over Pegu and Shinsawbu ruling over Dagon. Dagon had long been the traditional appanage of Mon queens.
Palace and burial locations
Furnival Furnivall or Furnival is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Frederick James Furnivall (1825–1910), co-creator of the New English Dictionary
* Kate Furnivall British historical novelist
* Percy Furnivall (1868–1938), Britis ...
claimed that "the ramparts of Shin Sawbu's residence at Dagon" were the colonial era "bunkers of the golf course near the Prome Road," but others claim these ruins are, in fact, a wall built in 1841.
The stupa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.
In Buddhism, circumamb ...
that contained her remains is said to be at a monastery in Sanchaung Township
Sanchaung Township ( my, စမ်းချောင်းမြို့နယ် ) is in the north central part of Yangon. The township comprises 18 wards, and shares borders with Kamayut Township in the north, Kamayut township and Bahan Townshi ...
of modern-day Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
near the Shwedagon Pagoda
The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ); mnw, ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်; officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' ( my, ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, , ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda is a gilded stupa ...
on the grounds of a monastery once named the Shin Sawbu Tomb Monastery, which is located west of Pyay Road (Prome Road) on Shin Saw Pu Road (Windsor Road).[(JBRS 1912 Saya Thein "Rangoon in 1852"; Harvey, p. 118; also see Singer, 1992 for details)]
Historiography
Various Burmese chronicles do not agree on the key dates of the queen's life.
Commemorations
* Shin Saw Pu Road, a road in Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
* Forchammer ''Notes on the Early History and Geography of British Burma – I. The Shwedagon Pagoda, II. The First Buddhist Mission to Suvannabhumi'', publ. Superintendent Government Printing, Rangoon 1884.
* Fraser (1920) "Old Rangoon" ''Journal of the Burma Research Society
The ''Journal of the Burma Research Society'' ( my , မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသုတေသနအသင်းဂျာနယ်) was an academic journal covering Burma studies that was published by the Burma Research Society betwee ...
'', volume X, Part I, pp. 49–60.
* Furnivall, ''Syriam Gazetteer''.
* Guillon, Emmanuel (tr. ed. James V. Di Crocco) (1999) ''The Mons: A civilization of Southeast Asia'', Bangkok: The Siam Society.
* Halliday, Robert (2000) (Christian Bauer ed.) ''The Mons of Burma and Thailand, Volume 2. Selected Articles,'' Bangkok: White Lotus.
* Harvey, G.E. (1925) ''History of Burma: From the earliest times to 10 March 1824 the beginning of the English conquest'', New York: Longmans, Green, and Co.
* Sayadaw Athwa he Monk of Athwa Burmese translation of his Talaing History of Pegu used by Phayre, now in the British Museum, being manuscripts OR 3462-4.
* Saya Thein (1910) "Shin Sawbu," ''Journal of the Burma Research Society
The ''Journal of the Burma Research Society'' ( my , မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသုတေသနအသင်းဂျာနယ်) was an academic journal covering Burma studies that was published by the Burma Research Society betwee ...
''
ummarizing the "Thaton-hnwe-mun Yazawin" below, but also giving the slightly different chronology of the Burmese chronicle "Hmannan Yazawin"* Saya Thein (1912) "Rangoon in 1852" ''Journal of the Burma Research Society
The ''Journal of the Burma Research Society'' ( my , မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသုတေသနအသင်းဂျာနယ်) was an academic journal covering Burma studies that was published by the Burma Research Society betwee ...
''.
* Schmidt, P.W. (1906) ''Slapat ragawan datow smim ron. Buch des Ragawan, der Konigsgeschichte'', publ. for Kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften by Holder, Vienna, pp. 133–135
* Shorto, Harry Leonard (1958) "The Kyaikmaraw inscriptions," ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'' (BSOAS), 21(2): 361–367.
* Shorto (1971) ''A dictionary of Mon inscriptions from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries''. London: Oxford University Press.
* Shorto (tr.) (no date) Unpublished typescript translation of pp. 34–44, 61–264 of Phra Candakanto (ed.) ''Nidana Ramadhipati-katha'' (or as on binding Rajawamsa Dhammaceti Mahapitakadhara), authorship attributed to Bannyadala (c. 1518–1572), Pak Lat, Siam, 1912.
* Singer, Noel F. (1992) "The Golden Relics of Bana Thau," ''Arts of Asia'', September–October 1992. ontains many interesting and original historical interpretations* ''Thaton-hnwe-mun Yazawin'', unpublished manuscript cited in Harvey, p. 117, the facts about Baña Thau in this chronicle are summarised in (Hmawbi Saya Thein, 1910)
*
*
External links
Photo of the gold crown of Shin Sawbu
Color imaginative recreation of Shin Sawbu's picture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shin Sawbu
Burmese people of Mon descent
Queens regnant
1394 births
1471 deaths
Hanthawaddy dynasty
15th-century women rulers
14th-century Burmese women
15th-century Burmese women
15th-century Burmese monarchs