"Mon Queen Shin Saw Pu"

A FOUR-TIME QUEEN

AND FINALLY A REIGNING MONARCH

* Born a princess about 600 years ago, Shin Saw Pu was widowed, became queen of four successive Bamar kings and ultimately rose to be a monarch of the Kingdom of the Mons (an ethnic group in Myanmar). She must have born under a rarest, luckiest star.
* Her father was Razadarit, king of the Mons in Hanthawaddy (now called Bago) in Lower Myanmar. At the age of 20 she was married to her cousin who died after five years of marriage and left her with two daughters and a son.
* King Razadarit also passed away three years later and he was succeeded by his son, Byinnya Razar, the governor of Dagon (now Yangon).

* Shin Saw Pu went to live with one of her half-brothers, Byinnya Gyan, who had become the governor of Dagon. Adjacent to Dagon was a province called Than Lyin (formerly called Syriam) and was governed by her natural brother, Byinnya Yan.
* The two governors conspired to unseat their brother and the news of the unsettled situation in the King of Mons reached the Bamar king, Sinphushin Thihathu, which gave him an idea to grab the opportunity to conquer the Mon kingdom. He sent troops to Dagon and instructed them to lay a siege to the city.
* Bound by racial ties, the two Mon governors reunited to defend against the common enemy. The Mon king, Byinnya Dhamma Razar, however, transferred the governor of Than Lyin, Byinnya Yan, to the adjacent province Dagon and sent Governor Byinnya Gyan to Motama (formerly Martaban).
* After conquering Pathein (formerly Bassein) and Dalah, a province on the other side of Yangon River, the Bamar troops attacked Dagon without avail. The Bamar troops therefore mounted a siege to the city by land and water. The city could no longer stand after a month of siege and Dagon Governor Byinnya Yan sought for a cease-fire. A peace deal was clinched and as a time-honoured sweetener, he sent his natural sister Shin Saw Pu and her royal entourage together with 30 court ladies to King Thihathu.
* The Bamar king was jubilant and he extended his most welcome hand to Shin Saw Pu as she stepped onto his royal barge and carried her upstream to Inwa (old name: Ava), his kingdom.
* Shin Saw Pu, a widow, must have been a very attractive bosom lady because she answered to the traditional definition of a Myanmar beauty: "Never ages, ever ageless," or "Bosomy and alluring."
* For three years she was a queen of King Thihathu when he died. Minhla Nge succeeded him and crowned Shin Saw Pu a queen. A wicked, green-eyed queen poisoned King Minhla Nge and he left his kingdom forever after only three months of kingship.
* Kalay Taung Nyo ascended the throne, and Shin Saw Pu again became a queen. His reign, however, lasted only seven months. He died on his flight to Rakine (formerly Arakan) when King Mohnyin Mintara invaded Inwa.
* Although she had been a queen continuously for seven years she was unhappy. She had been away quite a long time and she was terribly homesick.
* How intensely she must be suffering was fully understood by her foster son whom she had ordained as a Buddhist monk who took the monachal name of Pitaka Dara. He worked out a plan with another Mon Buddhist monk to help his foster mother escape to Hanthawaddy.
* As arranged, Shin Saw Pu drank a concotion which gave her an attack of diarrhoea-like discharge. Her attendants informed the king, who fearing contagion of the disease, quarantined the queen's room.
* The queen pleaded with the king to let her listen to the sermons preached by the two Mon monks before she breathed her last. The king consented and the two monks were permitted to move freely in the place.
* At one dead of night they wrapped the queen in a blanket, put her in a large wooden box and carried it out of her room. At the palace gate the guards challenged them but they let them go unsearched when they explained that the box contained offerings to the monks.
* They rushed to the Ayeyawadi River, hid in the jungle by day and sailed down the river by night. King Mohnyin Mintara sent a fleet of war-boats to chase the runaway boat without success. The king then realized that Shin Saw Pu must have been very unhappy to live in Inwa and he left it at that.
* Shin Saw Pu arrived in Hanthawaddy which was then ruled by King Byinnya Yan, her natural brother. She was given an enthusiastic welcome and royal care.
* When King Byinnya Yan died after 17 years of rule, his nephew Byinnya Baru succeeded him. But Byinnya Baru had a short life as a king. He was a victim of assassination.
* It was the turn of Shin Saw Pu's half-brother, Byinnya Gyan, to occupy the throne but he too was destined to be short-lived. When he died, Shin Saw Pu's nephew Min Maw Daw took the kingdom over but too died after six months.
* Now that there were no more contestants for the throne, Shin Saw Pu willy-nilly had to accept the Queenship of the Mon Kingdom. Her reign was peaceful, quiet and prosperous because the Bamar kings and pretenders were busy fighting against each other and they did not bother to come down to Hanthawaddy.
* Some years after her ascendency, she became tired of ruling the country and she discussed the succession question with her ministers. She was for the monk, Pitaka Dhamma, who helped her escape from Inwa but the ministers disagreed - he was not of the blood royal.
* To uphold her argument he Queen took a wooden beam of a bridge over which people had trodden every day and had it sculpt into the image of Lord Buddha which was then worshipped by the Buddhists.
* Thus she won her argument and she gave her daughter in marriage to Pitaka Dhara who had left the religious orders, and installed him as the heir apparent to the throne.
* After ruling the country for seven years she relinquished the throne to Pitaka Dhara who had assumed the title of Dhamma Zedi Min. Ex-queen Shin Saw Pu did not go back to Hanthawaddy but stayed in Dagon. She went into retreat, refurbished Shwedagon Pagoda, built new pagodas and monasteries and devoted to rest of her life to religious activities. She died serenely at the ripe age of 79.