This is a list of the queen consorts of the major kingdoms that existed in present-day

Myanmar 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 ...

. Those with the rank of '' Nan Mibaya '' (senior queens) are listed.

Primer

Rankings of consorts

Prior to the Konbaung period (1752–1885), the consorts of the Burmese monarchs were organized in three general tiers: ''Nan Mibaya'' (နန်းမိဖုရား, lit. "Queen of the Palace", senior queen), ''Mibaya (Nge)'' (မိဖုရား (ငယ်), "(Junior) Queen"), and ''Ko-lok-taw'' (ကိုယ်လုပ်တော်, concubine).(Than Tun 1964: 129): The Pagan period (849–1297) term for ''Nan Mibaya'' was ''Pyinthe'' (ပြင်သည်), and the term ''Usaukpan'' (ဦးဆောက်ပန်း) also meant the chief queen. (Harvey 1925: 327): ''Usaukpan'' was an

Old Burmese Old Burmese was an early form of the Burmese language, as attested in the stone inscriptions of Pagan, and is the oldest phase of Burmese linguistic history. The transition to Middle Burmese occurred in the 16th century. The transition to Middle ...

direct translation of

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'' Buddh ...

''Vatamsaka'', an artificial flower of silver or gold used as a hair ornament. Starting in the late 18th century, the Konbaung kings inserted the tiers of ''Hsaungdaw Mibaya'' (ဆောင်တော် မိဖုရား, lit. "Queen of the Royal Apartment") and ''Shwe-Yay Hsaung Mibaya'' (ရွှေရေးဆောင် မိဖုရား, lit. "Queen of the Gilded Chamber") between the tiers of senior queen and junior queen.Yi Yi 1982: 103–104 Ladies in waiting such as ''Apyo-daw'' (အပျိုတော်, "maiden") and ''Maung-ma'' (မောင်းမ, "handmaid") were part of the general staff of the palace.

Senior queens

Each tier had further rankings within it. The

order of precedence An order of precedence is a sequential hierarchy of nominal importance and can be applied to individuals, groups, or organizations. Most often it is used in the context of people by many organizations and governments, for very formal and state o ...

within the topmost tier was: }) or
''Taung Nan Mibaya'' ( my-Mymr, တောင်နန်း မိဖုရား) , Chief Queen or
Queen of the Southern Palace , - , 2. , ''Myauk Nan Mibaya'' ( my-Mymr, မြောက်နန်း မိဖုရား) , Queen of the Northern Palace , - , 3. , ''Ale Nan Mibaya'' ( my-Mymr, အလယ်နန်း မိဖုရား) , Queen of the Central Palace , - , 4. , ''Anauk Nan Mibaya'' ( my-Mymr, အနောက်နန်း မိဖုရား) , Queen of the Western Palace Aside from a few rare exceptions, the Queen of the Southern Palace was the official chief queen consort.In Burma Proper, it was extremely rare for a queen of the Southern Palace to not also be the chief queen. According to the rankings reported in the chronicles, Sithu II (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 287) and

Nanda Nanda may refer to: Indian history and religion * Nanda Empire, ruled by the Nanda dynasty, an Indian royal dynasty ruling Magadha in the 4th century BCE ** Mahapadma Nanda, first Emperor of the Nanda Empire ** Dhana Nanda (died c. 321 BCE), last ...

(Hmannan Vol. 3 2003: 107) had South Queens who were not their chief queen. In the

Mrauk-U Kingdom The Kingdom of Mrauk-U ( Arakanese: မြောက်ဦး နေပြည်တော်,) was a kingdom that existed on the Arakan littoral from 1429 to 1785. Based out of the capital Mrauk-U, near the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, ...

on the west coast, three kings— Min Khamaung (RRT Vol. 2 1999: 87, 89), Thado (RRT Vol. 2 1999: 115), Sanda Thaditha (RRT Vol. 2 1999: 147, 149)—had South Queens who were not their chief queen. In theory, the chief queen consort alone had the right to a white umbrella and to sit with the King on the royal throne.Scott 1900: 122

Junior queens

Concubines

Concubines were called Ko-lok-taw (ကိုယ်လုပ်တော်, lit. "one who administers to the royal body") or Chay-daw-din (ခြေတော်တင်, lit. "one on whom the royal feet are placed").Hla Pe 116

Names

The names of the queens, if known, are given according to their most well known common name, which often happens to be the primary name used by the royal chronicles. The chronicle reported names of the queens may be their popular/commonly known name (e.g.,

Pwa Saw Pwa Saw ( my, ဖွားစော ; also known as Saw Hla Wun (စောလှဝန်း, ); 1240– 1295/96 or 1310s) was a chief queen consort of King Narathihapate of the Pagan Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). She is remembered as witty, wise ...

Nanmadaw Me Nu , image = Nanmadaw Me Nu.jpg , succession = Chief queen consort of Burma , reign = 5 June 1819 – 15 April 1837 , predecessor = Shin Paik Thaung , successor = Thiri Pawara Ti L ...

); formal title (e.g., Agga Mahethi,

Sanda Dewi Sanda Dewi ( my, စန္ဒာဒေဝီ ; pi, Candādevī) was one of the three principal queens of King Bayinnaung of Burma from 1553 to 1581. She was also a queen of the last two kings of Prome Kingdom from 1532 to 1542. She was the matern ...

); personal name (e.g.,

Shin Bo-Me Shin Bo-Me ( my, ရှင်ဘို့မယ်, ; also spelled Shin Bo-Mai) was a principal queen of four kings of Ava in the early 15th century. Brief Considered a great beauty, Bo-Me was the favorite queen of Minkhaung I.Harvey 1925: 93 ...

Yun San , image = , caption = , reign = 29 February 1752 – 11 May 1760 , coronation = 17 April 1752 , succession = Chief Queen Consort of Burma , predecessor = Maha Nanda Di ...

); or generic name of the office ( Hanthawaddy Mibaya, "Queen of Hanthawaddy"; or Myauk Pyinthe, "Queen of the Northern Palace"). Finally, the names of the queens with no known records are given as "(Unknown)".

Duration of consortship

The "Became consort" and "Ceased to be consort" dates indicate the period in which a given queen was in the role of royal consort—not the duration of marriage.

Pagan dynasty

Early Pagan

Pagan Empire

Small kingdoms

Myinsaing Kyaukse District is a district of the Mandalay Region in central Myanmar. Townships The district contains the following townships: Kyaukse Township Sintgaing Township *Myittha Township Tada-U Township was promoted as Tada-U District Tada-U ( ...

Pinya Pinya ( my, ပင်းယ), or Vijayapura, was the capital of the Kingdom of Pinya, located near Ava, Mandalay Region, Myanmar. It was the residence of the Pinya dynasty who ruled this part of central Myanmar from 1313 to 1365.Hmannan Vol. 1 20 ...

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 ...

Ava

House of Myinsaing

Confederation of Shan states

Prome Pyay (, ; mnw, ပြန် , ; also known as Prome and Pyè) is principal town of Pyay Township in the Bago Region in Myanmar. Pyay is located on the bank of the Irrawaddy River, north-west of Yangon. It is an important trade center for the Aye ...

Ramanya

Arakan Arakan ( or ) is a historic coastal region in Southeast Asia. Its borders faced the Bay of Bengal to its west, the Indian subcontinent to its north and Burma proper to its east. The Arakan Mountains isolated the region and made it accessi ...

House of Launggyet

}), "Queen of the Exalted Palace"), followed by Saw U the North Queen. , - , Saw Thanda , South , - , Shin Lat I , Center , - ,

Saw U The ''saw u'' ( th, ซออู้, , ; also spelled ''saw ou'') is a Thai bowed string instrument. It has a lower pitch than the saw duang and is the lowest sounding of the saw family. Reliable evidence shows that pattern of the Saw U was prob ...

, North , - , style="background:#eff2f7" , Wizala Dewi , style="background:#eff2f7" , Chief , style="background:#eff2f7" rowspan="4" , 4 July 1593 , style="background:#eff2f7" , 4 July 1612 , style="background:#eff2f7" rowspan="6" , Raza II , style="background:#eff2f7" rowspan="6" , The chronicle '' Rakhine Razawin Thit'' (RRT Vol. 2 1999: 87) says Raza II had nine senior queens during his reign but gives only six names. "Nine" was most likely a typographical/copying error since Burmese numerals six ( my-Mymr, ၆) and nine ( my-Mymr, ၉) are very similar. Khin Ma Hnaung's official title was Tanzaung Mibaya ( my-Mymr, တန်ဆောင်း မိဖုရား, "Queen of the Royal Hall"), which was likely the title of the second ranked queen. (Saw Thanda, the second ranked queen, during Saw Hla's reign was also Tanzaung Mibaya per (RRT Vol. 2 1999: 46). Similarly, Nan Htet Mibaya apparently was the title of the third ranked queen; Thupaba Dewi, the third ranked queen of Raza II, was Nan Htet Mibaya. Furthermore, the chronicle does not mention if any of the queens lived to the end of Raza II's reign. The chief queen presumably made it since there is no mention of other chief queens. , - , style="background:#eff2f7" , Pyinsala Sanda , style="background:#eff2f7" , North , style="background:#eff2f7" rowspan="3" , ? , - , style="background:#eff2f7" ,

Thupaba Dewi Thupaba Dewi ( my, သုပဘာ ဒေဝီ, ; pi, Supabhādevī) was an Ava princess who became a queen consort of King Razadarit of Hanthawaddy. Brief She was born Min Hla Myat to Saw Beza and King Swa Saw Ke of Ava. She was the yo ...

, style="background:#eff2f7" , Center , - , style="background:#eff2f7" , Zalaka Dewi , style="background:#eff2f7" , West , - , style="background:#eff2f7" ,

Khin Ma Hnaung , image = , caption = , reign = – , coronation = , succession = Queen of the Northern Palace of Arakan , predecessor = Pyinsala Sanda , successor = ...

, style="background:#eff2f7" , North? , style="background:#eff2f7" , 19 December 1599 , style="background:#eff2f7" rowspan="2" , 4 July 1612? , - , style="background:#eff2f7" , Saw Phyu , style="background:#eff2f7" , Center? , style="background:#eff2f7" , 17th century , - , Dhamma Dewi II , Chief , rowspan="3" , 4 July 1612 , rowspan="3" , 14 May 1622 , rowspan="3" , Khamaung , rowspan="3" , RRT Vol. 2 1999: 87, 89 , - , Shin Htwe , North , - ,

, Center , - , style="background:#eff2f7" , Natshin Me , style="background:#eff2f7" , Chief , style="background:#eff2f7" rowspan="2" , 14 May 1622 , style="background:#eff2f7" rowspan="3" , 29 May 1638 , style="background:#eff2f7" rowspan="3" , Thiri Thudhamma I , style="background:#eff2f7" rowspan="3" , RRT Vol. 2 1999: 92 , - , style="background:#eff2f7" , Hmauk Taw Ma I , style="background:#eff2f7" , North , - , style="background:#eff2f7" rowspan="2" , Win Lon , style="background:#eff2f7" , Center , style="background:#eff2f7" , 1630s? , - , Chief , 29 May 1638 , 17 June 1638 , Sanay , RRT Vol. 2 1999: 96

Late Mrauk-U

Toungoo Dynasty , conventional_long_name = Toungoo dynasty , common_name = Taungoo dynasty , era = , status = Empire , event_start = Independence from Ava , year_start ...

House of Toungoo

House of Nyaungyan

Restored Hanthawaddy

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

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{cite journal , author=Yi Yi , title=Life at the Burmese Court under the Konbaung Kings , journal=Burma Historical Research Department Silver Jubilee Publication , publisher=University of Yangon , year=1960 , edition=1982 , location=Yangon , url=http://www.lib.washington.edu/myanmar/pdfs/YI0012a.pdf , access-date=2015-06-21 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050802/http://www.lib.washington.edu/myanmar/pdfs/YI0012a.pdf , archive-date=2016-03-04 , url-status=dead Lists of queens, Burmese Lists of Burmese monarchs, Royal consorts Lists of royal consorts, Burmese