Shin Myat Hla of Ava

Shin Myat Hla ရှင်မြတ်လှ
Chief queen consort of Ava
Tenure	20 May 1426 – c. May 1439
Predecessor	Shin Bo-Me
Successor	Min Hla Nyet
Queen consort of Ava
Tenure	1409–1410 (five months)
Born	c. 1390s Taungdwin
Died	? Ava (Inwa)
Spouse	Minkhaung I Mohnyin Thado
Issue	Minye Kyawswa I of Ava Narapati I of Ava Shin Hla Myat of Pakhan Saw Hla Htut of Pagan
House	Mohnyin
Father	Thihapate II of Taungdwin[1]
Mother	Princess of Myinsaing[1]
Religion	Theravada Buddhism

In this Burmese name, Shin is an honorific.

Shin Myat Hla (Burmese: ရှင်မြတ်လှ, pronounced: [ʃɪ̀ɴ mjaʔ l̥a̰]; also known as Shin Mi-Myat^[2] or Me Myat Hla^[3]) was the chief queen consort of King Mohnyin Thado of Ava (now Burma) from 1426 to 1439. She was also a junior queen of King Minkhaung I of Ava for five months in 1409–10. She was the mother of kings Minye Kyawswa I and Narapati I of Ava. She was also an eight-times great grandmother of King Alaungpaya of Konbaung Dynasty.^[3]

Brief

Shin Myat Hla was descended from Pinya and Pagan royal lines. Her father Thihapate II was a grandson of King Thihathu of Ava, and her mother was a great-great granddaughter of King Kyawswa of Pagan. Though her date of birth is unknown, based on the date of her first marriage, 1409,^[4] she was probably born in the early to mid 1390s. She grew up in Taungdwin which her father had ruled since at least 1364.^{[note 1]} She had at least one elder half-brother, the father of Shin Bo-Me.^{[note 2]}

Her cloistered upbringing changed drastically in 1409. She was married off to King Minkhaung I of Ava. (She was following in the footsteps of her niece Shin Bo-Me, who became a queen of Minkhaung in 1407.) But five months into the marriage, in late 1409/early 1410,^[4] the king gave her to Min Nansi, then a commander in his army, as a reward for the commander's performance in then ongoing war with Pegu.^[2] Furthermore, the couple was sent off to Mohnyin, a rebellion-prone Shan state (in present-day Kachin State), where her new husband was appointed sawbwa (chief; essentially governor-general). Over the next 16 years, her husband came to be known as "Mohnyin Thado" (Prince of Mohnyin). The couple had four children (two sons and two daughters): Minye Kyawswa, Narapati, Shin Hla Myat of Pakhan, and Saw Hla Htut of Pagan (Bagan).^[5]

Myat Hla became queen of Ava again—this time as the chief queen, succeeding her niece Bo-Me—in 1426 when Mohnyin Thado seized the Ava throne.^[6] She remained the chief queen for the entire duration of Mohnyin's reign (1426–39).^{[note 3]}

Her two sons became kings of Ava. Her eldest child Minye Kyawswa reigned from 1439 to 1442 while her second child Narapati reigned from 1442 to 1468. In all, her descendants ruled Ava until 1527.^[7] King Alaungpaya, the founder of Konbaung Dynasty, was an 11th generation descendant of the queen.^[3]

Ancestry

The following is her ancestry as given in the Hmannan Yazawin chronicle.^{[note 4]}

Ancestry of Queen Myat Hla

8. Thray Sithu                       4. Thihapate I of Taungdwin                             9. unnamed                       2. Thihapate II of Taungdwin                                   10. Thihathu                       5. Saw Pale of Pinya                             11. Yadanabon of Pinya                       1. Myat Hla                                         12. Shwe Nan Shin of Myinsaing                       6. Thettawshay of Myinsaing                             13. unnamed                       3. Princess of Myinsaing                                   7. unnamed

Notes

1. (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 398, 400): Her father declared himself king with the title of Thet-taw-shay Thihapate when the Pinya Kingdom collapsed in 1364. He submitted to the new king, Thado Minbya, in the dry season of 1366–67, only after the latter had laid siege to Taungdwin. According to inscriptional evidence, Thihapate was still governor of Taungdwin in 1402 per (Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 63).
2. (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 372): Her mother was not the first wife of her father, whose first wife was Saw Myat, a sister of King Swasawke of Ava. Thihapate and Saw Myat had at least one son, named Theingathu (or Theinkhathu).
3. The obituary section of King Mohnyin in (Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 75–77) states only her as the chief queen. Furthermore, she was still alive in 1438 per (Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 75).
4. See (Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 62) and (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 372). Note: both her father and paternal grandfather had the title Thihapate; her father's personal name was Saw Hnaung, and her grandfather's was Pwint Hla Oo. Also note that her maternal grandfather Thet-taw-shay of Myinsaing is referred to as a son-in-law of King Thihathu while her maternal grandmother's name is left unreported. Since King Thihathu died in 1325, the maternal grandmother was unlikely to have been Thihathu's daughter. It is likely that Myat Hla's maternal grandmother was another wife of Thet-taw-shay.

References

1. Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 80
2. Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 440
3. Letwe Nawrahta 1961: 12
4. Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 81
5. Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 62
6. Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 61
7. Htin Aung 1967: 337

Bibliography

• Htin Aung, Maung (1967). A History of Burma. New York and London: Cambridge University Press.
• Letwe Nawrahta and Twinthin Taikwun (c. 1770). Hla Thamein, ed. Alaungpaya Ayedawbon (in Burmese) (1961 ed.). Ministry of Culture, Union of Burma.
• Royal Historical Commission of Burma (1832). Hmannan Yazawin (in Burmese) 1–3 (2003 ed.). Yangon: Ministry of Information, Myanmar.