| Shin Sawbu ရှင်စောပု | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Statue of Queen Shin Sawbu | |||||
| Queen regnant of Hanthawaddy | |||||
| Reign | 1454–1471 | ||||
| Predecessor | Leik Munhtaw | ||||
| Successor | Dhammazedi | ||||
| Regent | Dhammazedi (from 1460) | ||||
| Queen consort of the Central Palace of Ava | |||||
| Tenure | August 1426 – 1429 | ||||
| Predecessor | herself | ||||
| Successor | Dhamma Dewi of Ava | ||||
| Queen consort of the Central Palace of Ava | |||||
| Tenure | December 1423 – August 1425 | ||||
| Predecessor | Min Pyan of Ava | ||||
| Successor | herself | ||||
| Born | 11 February 1394 Wednesday, 12th waxing ofTabaung 755ME Pegu (Bago) Hanthawaddy kingdom | ||||
| Died | 1471 (aged 77) Dagon Hanthawaddy kingdom | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Consort | Binnya Bwe (c. 1413–1419) Thihathu (1423–1425) Tarabya Minye Kyawhtin (1425–1426) Mohnyin Thado (1426–1429) | ||||
| Issue | Binnya Waru Mi Pakahtaw | ||||
| |||||
| House | Hanthawaddy | ||||
| Father | Razadarit | ||||
| Mother | Thuddhamaya | ||||
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism | ||||
Shin Sawbu (Burmese:ရှင်စောပု,pronounced[ʃɪ̀ɰ̃sɔ́bṵ];Mon:မိစဴဗု,listenⓘ; 1394–1471) was queen regnant ofHanthawaddy from 1454 to 1471. Queen Shin Sawbu is also known asBinnya Thau (Mon:ဗြဴဗညာထဝ်,listenⓘ) or Old Queen in Mon. Queen Shin Sawbu and QueenJamadevi ofHaripunjaya are the two most famous among the small number of queens who ruled in mainlandSoutheast Asia.[1]
Shin Sawbu was the only daughter of the Mon KingRazadarit who had two sons as well. She was born on 11 February 1394 (Wednesday, 12th waxing of Tabaung of 755 ME) to the junior queenThuddhamaya (သုဒ္ဓမာယာ). At birth she was given the nameVihāradevī (lit. 'queen of the monastery' inSanskrit andPali). At age 20 she was married to Binnya Bwe (Smin Chesao), Razadarit's nephew and had a son,Binnya Waru and two daughters, Netaka Taw and Netaka Thin. Her husband died when she was just 25.
In 1421, Sawbu's father KingRazadarit died. The king's eldest sonBinnya Dhammaraza ascended the throne but his younger brothersBinnya Ran andBinnya Kyan rebelled. By the invitation of Binnya Kyan, KingThihathu of Ava came down with an army in November 1423 (Natdaw 785 ME).[note 1] Binnya Dhammaraza pacified his brothers by making Binnya Ran the crown prince as well as giving the governorship of theIrrawaddy delta, and Binnya Kyan the governorship of Martaban. Crown Prince Binnya Ran in a gesture of peace presented his sister Shin Sawbu to Thihathu, who in turn presented a princess of Ava to marry Binnya Ran. It was December 1423.[note 2]
When Shin Sawbu went to Ava, she was 29 years old, a widow and a mother with a son and two daughters. During the time she resided at Ava, she did not have any additional children.[2] King Thihathu was very fond of her but he died during a military expedition in the north in 1425. Shin Sawbu remained in Ava for four more years. During her residence at Ava, Shin Sawbu became the patron of two Mon monks, Dhammanyana and Pitakahara, who resided at the Ariyadhaza monastery at Sagaing near Ava. In 1429, at the age of 35, the queen escaped with the help of her Mon monk preceptors and returned to Pegu accompanied by them.[3]
All members of Pegu's male line to the throne having been exhausted, Shin Sawbu ascended the throne as queen in early 1454. Two of her brothers, Binnya Dhammayaza and Banya Ran I, and one of her sons, Binnya Waru, had already ruled as kings of Pegu.[4]
In 1457, shortly after ascending the throne, the Buddhist world celebrated the two thousandth anniversary of the Buddha'sParanirvana which in Southeast Asia is dated to the year 543 BCE.
After ruling Pegu for around seven years, in 1460 she decided to abdicate and move from Pegu to Dagon where she could lead a life of religious devotion next to theShwedagon pagoda.[5]
Shin Sawbu chose a monk to succeed her on the throne of Pegu. The monk Pitakahara, who had helped her escape from Ava, left thesangha, was given the titles Punnaraja andDhammazedi, and became her son-in-law and a suitable heir to the throne by marrying her younger daughter Mipakathin.[5]
Shin Sawbu lived inDagon next to theShwedagon Pagoda until the end of her life in 1471.[3] Even after she moved to Dagon she is said to have still worn a crown.[6]
The actual handing over of power from Shin Sawbu to Dhammazedi, who became king under the title Ramadhipati in the year 1457, is commemorated in an inscription written in the Mon language.[7]
In Dagon, the queen devoted her time and attention to the Shwedagon pagoda, enlarging the platform around the pagoda, paving it with stones and placing stone posts and lamps around the outside of the pagoda. She extended theglebe lands supporting the pagoda to Danok.[1] Almost everything that Shin Sawbu did, she did in multiples of four:
"There were four white umbrellas, four golden alms-bowls, four earthenware vessels, and four offerings were made each day. There were twenty-seven men who prepared the lamps each day. There were twenty men as guardians of the pagoda treasury. There were four goldsmith's shops, four orchestras, four drums, four sheds, eight doorkeepers, four sweepers, and twenty lamp lighters. She built round and strengthened the sevenfold wall. Between the walls Her Majesty Banya Thau had them plant palmyra and coconut trees."[8]
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She also had her own weight in gold (25 viss) beaten out intogold leaf and covered the Shwedagon pagoda with this gold leaf. The inhabitants of Dagon donated 5,000 viss of bronze to the pagoda.[9]
Three inscriptions in stone have been found from Shin Sawbu's reign.
The first inscription known as Kyaikmaraw I commemorates a land dedication. On 25 September 1455 the queen dedicated land to the Kyaikmaraw pagoda that she had built. The inscription records that jewels, precious objects, and the revenues of a place named "Tko' Mbon" were given to the Moh Smin [Royal Promontory] pagoda at Myatheindan nearMartaban. The second part of the inscription provides benedictions for those coming to pay their respects to the pagoda and makes many references to Buddhist scripture. The third part of the inscription outlines the torments of hell. The inscription is rich in linguistic, religious, and historical information with Burmese linguistic influences and the word "caw" or "chao" meaning "lord" from aTai language used supposedly because "this title had been given to theWareru dynasty by the Thai king."[10]
At the end of the nineteenth century, some Mons are said to have regarded the BritishQueen Victoria as the reincarnation of Shin Sawbu.[1]
The story of how the queen chose a successor runs as follows. After ruling for only seven years, she decided to abdicate.[6] She devised a method to choose which one of the two monks had accompanied her during her residence in Ava should succeed her as ruler:
"One morning when they came to receive the royal rice, she secreted in one of their bowls a pahso (layman's dress) [male sarong, skirt-like dress] together with little models of the five regalia; then having prayed that the lot might fall on the worthier, she returned the bowls.[11] Dhammazedi. To whom the fateful bowl fell, left the sacred order, received her daughter in marriage, and assumed the government. The other monk in his disappointment aroused suspicion and was executed in Paunglin, north of Dagon. The lords also resented the choice at first but became reconciled owing to Dhammazedi's high character; when some of them continued murmuring that he was not of royal race, Shinsawbu had a beam taken out of the and carved into a Buddha image, and showed it to them saying 'Ye say he is of common blood, he cannot be your King. See here this common wood – yesterday it was trodden in the dust of your feet, but to-day, is it not the Lord and do we not bow before it?'."[12]
Singer provides an alternative story with the governor ofPathein, Binnya Ein, married to Shin Sawbu's elder daughter Mipakahtau, rebelling because he was not appointed king ahead of Dhammazedi. This rebellion ends when he is poisoned.[5]
Baña Thau means "Old Queen" in theMon language. Harvey relates the story of how this name originated taken from the "Thatonhnwemun Yazawin" chronicle:
"Once while being carried around the city in her gorgeous palanquin, sword in hand and crown on head, she heard an old man exclaim, as her retinue pushed him aside "I must get out of the way, must I? I am an old fool, am I? I am not so old that I could not get a child, which is more than your old queen could do!" Thunderstruck at such irreverence, she meekly accepted it as a sign from heaven, and thereafter styled herself 'The Old Queen'."[13]
The Mon historyNidana Ramadhipati Katha provides an alternative story of how Baña Thau ended up living in Ava claiming that she was already ruling at Pegu as queen when she was abducted and brought to Ava and made chief queen.[14]
Some hold that Shin Sawbu ruled for seven years,[9] others seventeen years.[1] Shorto first hypothesized that she might have ruled jointly with Dhammazedi.[15] Guillon holds that Sawbu and Dhammazedi ruled jointly with Dhammazedi ruling over Pegu and Shinsawbu ruling over Dagon.[16] Dagon had long been the traditional appanage of Mon queens.[17]
Furnival claimed that "the ramparts of Shin Sawbu's residence at Dagon" were the colonial era "bunkers of the golf course near the Prome Road," but others claim these ruins are, in fact, a wall built in 1841.[18]
Thestupa that contained her remains is said to be at a monastery inSanchaung Township of modern-dayYangon near theShwedagon Pagoda on the grounds of a monastery once named the Shin Sawbu Tomb Monastery, which is located west of Pyay Road (Prome Road) on Shin Saw Pu Road (Windsor Road).[19]
Various Burmese chronicles do not agree on the key dates of the queen's life.
| Event | Slapat Rajawan (1766) | Mon Yazawin (Shwe Naw) | Maha Yazawin (1724) | Hmannan Yazawin (1832) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birth | c. 1406[note 3] | Nov/Dec 1395[note 4] | 19 February 1396[note 5] | 11 February 1394[note 6] |
| Marriage to Smin Sithu | not reported | 1410/11[note 7] | 1413/14[note 8] | |
| Birth of son Binnya Waru and death of Smin Sithu | not reported | 1420/21[note 9] | 1418/19[note 10] | |
| Ava years | 1422–1427[22] | c. early 1424 – 1434/35[note 11] | c. January 1423 –c. November 1429[note 12] | |
| Reign | 1463/64–1470/71[25] | 1445/46–1470/71[22] | 1448/49–1470/71[26] 1453/54–1470/71 (summary section)[27] | 1452/53–1470/71[28] 1453/54–1470/71 (summary section)[29] |
| Death | 1470/71[30] | 1470/71 | 1470/71[26] | 1470/71[28] |
| Age at death | 64[30] | 75 | 75 | 77 |
[Summarizing the "Thaton-hnwe-mun Yazawin" below, but also giving the slightly different chronology of the Burmese chronicle "Hmannan Yazawin"]
Shin Sawbu Born: 11 February 1394 Died: 1471 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Queen regnant of Hanthawaddy 1454–1471 | Succeeded by |
| Royal titles | ||
| Preceded by | Queen of the Central Palace of Ava 1423–1425 | Succeeded by herself |
| Preceded by herself | Queen of the Central Palace of Ava 1426–1429 | Succeeded by |
| Pagan dynasty 849–1297 | |
|---|---|
| Myinsaing andPinya kingdoms 1297–1364 | |
| Sagaing kingdom 1315–1364 | |
| Kingdom of Ava 1364–1555 | |
| Hanthawaddy kingdom 1287–1539, 1550–1552 | |
| Mrauk U kingdom 1429–1785 |
|
| Prome kingdom 1482–1542 | |
| Toungoo dynasty 1510–1752 | |
| Restored Hanthawaddy kingdom 1740–1757 | |
| Konbaung dynasty 1752–1885 | |
| |
| Chief queens consort | |
|---|---|
| Queens of the Northern Palace | |
| Queens of the Central Palace | |
| Queens of the Western Palace | |
1Queens of the Confederation of Shan States | |
