Supayalay (Burmese: စုဖုရားလေး; 1863 – 25 June 1912) was a junior queen consort of the Konbaung dynasty, and was married to her half-brother Thibaw Min, the last monarch in the dynasty, in 1878. She was one of the three only queens of King Thibaw.[1][2][3][4]

Supayalay
Mibaya Nge
Princess of Yamethin
Tenure1863 – 1878
Successordisestablished
BornHteik Supayalay
1863 (1863)
Mandalay
Died25 June 1912 (1912-06-26) (aged 48)
Ratnagiri, British India
SpouseThibaw Min
Regnal name
သီရိသုပဘာရတနာဒေဝီ
HouseKonbaung
FatherMindon Min
MotherHsinbyumashin

Early life

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Supayalay next to Queen Supayalat and King Thibaw

Supayalay, born in 1863 at the Royal Palace, in Mandalay as Hteik Supayalay, was the youngest of three daughters between King Mindon and Hsinbyumashin.[5] She was a full-blooded sister of Supayagyi and Supayalat. She received the appanage of Yamethin and was therefore known as the Princess of Yamethin, with the royal title of Sri Suriya Singha Ratna Devi.[6]

Her marriage was never consummated, and Supayalat was said to have forced monogamy on a Burmese king for the first and the last time in history, even though Thibaw also subsequently married her eldest sister Hteik Supayagyi.

Exile

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The brick palace in Ratnagiri that Supayalay and the royal family was exiled to

The royal family's reign lasted just seven years when Thibaw Min was defeated in the Third Anglo-Burmese War and forced to abdicate by the British in 1885. On 25 November 1885 they were taken away in a covered carriage, leaving Mandalay Palace by the southern gate of the walled city along the streets lined by British soldiers and their wailing subjects, to the River Irrawaddy where a steamboat called Thuriya (Sun) awaited. They were exiled to the remote coastal town of Ratnagiri in India, where they lived for over 30 years. Her sister Supayagyi and the queen mother were sent to Tavoy (now Dawei).[7] She died on 25 June 1912 at Ratnagiri, India.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Dutta, Abhijit (14 October 2016). "The broken Glass Palace". mint.
  2. ^ "Not the right time to repatriate King Thibaw, says descendant". The Myanmar Times. 13 August 2012.
  3. ^ Myanmar Architecture: Cities of Gold. Times Editions, Marshall Cavendish. 2005. ISBN 978-981-232-916-5.
  4. ^ "Hteik Suphayalay, Queen of King Thibaw". Thutazone.
  5. ^ Shah, Sudha (2012-06-14). The King In Exile : The Fall Of The Royal Family Of Burma. Harper Collins. ISBN 9789350295984.
  6. ^ Ṅayʻ (Moṅʻ.), Phe (2004). Ra noṅʻ Moṅʻ Moṅʻ Tutʻ: Ratanā puṃ nanʻʺ tvaṅʻʺ lyhuí vhakʻ jātʻ lamʻʺ myāʺ (in Burmese). Paññā Rvhe Toṅʻ Cā ʼupʻ tuikʻ.
  7. ^ "Forty Years in Burma, by John Ebenezer Marks". anglicanhistory.org. Retrieved 2018-10-04.
  8. ^ Myanmar Architecture: Cities of Gold. Times Editions, Marshall Cavendish. 2005. ISBN 978-981-232-916-5.