''Maha Chandra Kumara'' Soe Win ( my, မဟာစန္ဒြကုမာရစိုးဝင်း; born 15 January 1948) is a retired Burmese diplomat, prince and senior male member of the Royal House of Konbaung as the

Pretender A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate.Curley Jr., Walter J. P. ''Monarchs-in-Waiting'' ...

to the Throne of Burma (abolished in 1885) since 2019. He is the eldest son of Prince Taw Phaya Gyi and great-grandson of

King Thibaw Thibaw Min, also Thebaw or Theebaw ( my, သီပေါ‌မင်း, ; 1 January 1859 – 19 December 1916) was the last king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) and also the last Burmese monarch in the country's history. His re ...

and Chief Queen

Supayalat , image = Queen Supayalat of Burma.jpg , image_size = , caption = , succession = Chief queen consort of Burma , reign = 12 April 1879 – 29 November 1885 , predecessor ...

. In 2017, Soe Win requested the Thai royal family and government to stop airing the Thai historical drama ''

Plerng Phra Nang ''Plerng Phra Nang'' ( th, เพลิงพระนาง; ; lit: ''Her Majesty's Flame''; English title: The Royal Fire) was a Thai TV drama or ''lakorn''. It aired on Thailand's Channel 7 from February 17 to April 15, 2017 on Fridays, Saturda ...

'', loosely based on

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 K ...

's life, claiming it insulted the Burmese royal family.

Early life

Soe Win was born on 15 January 1947 in

Rangoon 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 ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. He is the eldest son of Prince Taw Phaya Gyi and his first wife, Khin Kyi. He graduated from

Rangoon University '') , mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom. , established = , type = Public , rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun , undergrad = 4194 , postgrad = 5748 , city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon , state = Yangon Regio ...

. He had married Tin Lay Wai and they both have a son named Min Oo and a daughter named Sandi.

Career

Soe Win worked to promote a positive image of Myanmar overseas, even during the darkest periods of military rule. He joined the Burmese Foreign Service, becoming First Secretary in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

, from 1987 to 1991. He served as

Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

until 1999,

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

from 1999 to 2003,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

from 2003 to 2005 and also served in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and China, before retiring in 2009. Later, he joined the Myanmar Football Association to coach the national team in their unsuccessful bid to win the World Cup in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 2015. He once managed Myanmar national under-19 football team and was head of the International department of

Myanmar Football Federation The Myanmar Football Federation (MFF) ( my, မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ဘောလုံး အဖွဲ့ချုပ်) is the governing body of football in Myanmar. The MFF oversees the Burmese men's national team, the women ...

. He served as deputy director-general of Protocol from 2006 to 2008. He also served as vice-chairman of the Myanmar-China Friendship Association. Soe Win called the drama ''Plerng Phra Nang'' as "unwatchable" and "distasteful" for insult the Burmese royal family and asked government for the series to be taken off the air. The producer, Chitralada Disayanon, argued that the plot was "unrelated to Burma and is completely fictional, with the costumes and setting not meant to evoke any country or time period in particular".

Documentary film

In 2017, Soe Win and his uncle

Taw Phaya Prince Edward Taw Phaya ( my, တော်ဘုရား; also known as Tun Aung, 22 March 1924 – 12 January 2019) was the Pretender to the Throne of Burma (abolished in 1885). He was the second son of Princess Myat Phaya Galay, the fourth daugh ...

, aunt

Hteik Su Phaya Gyi Princess Hteik Su Phaya Gyi ( my, ထိပ်စုဘုရားကြီး ; 5 April 1923 – 31 December 2021), also known as Su Su Khin or Pwar May or Princess Tessie, was a Burmese princess and the final surviving royal of the Konbaung ...

, cousin

Devi Thant Sin Devi Thant Sin ( my, ဒေဝီသန့်စင်, also spelt Devi Thant Cin; born 2 January 1947) is a Burmese environmentalist, writer, and senior member of the Royal House of Konbaung. She is the leader of the environmental movement in M ...

appeared as the main characters of ''We Were Kings'', a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

Alex Bescoby Alex Bescoby is an English documentary film maker. Early life and career Alex attended Altrincham Grammar School for Boys in Greater Manchester from 1999 to 2006. He graduated from Cambridge University. In 2013, Alex came to Myanmar to work w ...

and Max Jones. The film premiered in

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

on 4 November 2017 at the Irrawaddy Literary Festival and also screened in Thailand at the

Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) was founded in the 1957 in Bangkok's Patpong area. It is considered the oldest and largest press club in Southeast Asia. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam were m ...

. The film is about Myanmar's history, but also about the descendants of the last kings of Burma who lived unassuming lives in modern Myanmar, unrecognized and unknown.

Mission to search for missing royal gems

was sent into exile by the British in 1885. He gave the Burmese Crown Jewels, including a giant ruby, to colonel

Edward Bosc Sladen Sir Edward Bosc Sladen (20November 18314January 1890) was an Indian Army officer who served in India and Burma. He organised a provisional government in Upper Burma and oversaw the surrender of King Thibaw. Early life Edward was born in Madras, ...

for safekeeping but they were never returned. His descendant believes that recovering the long lost royal treasure would restore pride in his nation. Soe Win has been investigating the royal ruby’s disappearance with

, a filmmaker and historian. On 3 November 2017, he arrived in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in a bid to find the precious giant royal ruby "Nga Mauk" which is said to be the size of a duck egg that was reportedly stolen by a British colonel over 130 years ago. That giant ruby alleged to have been stolen from the Burmese royal family by a British officer Edward Bosc Sladen who took it back to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He believes that the Nga Mauk ruby was subsequently used by the British royal family in its crown jewels.

References

External links

A rare meeting with the last of Burma's royals
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soe Win 1947 births Konbaung dynasty Ambassadors of Myanmar to Australia Ambassadors of Myanmar to Japan Ambassadors of Myanmar to Pakistan Burmese diplomats Burmese princes Pretenders to the Burmese throne Living people