Thibaw Min

Thibaw Min (Burmese: သီပေါ‌မင်း, pronounced [θìbɔ́ mɪ́ɴ]; 1 January 1859 – 19 December 1916) was the last king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). His reign ended when Burma was defeated by the forces of the British Empire in the Third Anglo-Burmese War, on 29 November 1885, prior to its official annexation on 1 January 1886.^[1]

Exile and the fate of the Royal Family

King Thibaw himself gave an account of the reasons for his overthrow in a testimonial he wrote from exile for Esoof Cheroots (a brand of Indian cigarettes) and quoted by C. L. Keeton in his book King Thebaw and the Ecological Rape of Burma:

My late father, the Royal Mindon Min, the golden-footed lord of the white elephant, master of a thousand gold umbrellas, owner of the Royal peacocks, lord of the sea and of the world, whose face was like the sun, always smoked the Esoof cheroot while meditating on his treatment of the bull-faced, earthswallowing English. Had I done the same I should never have lost my throne, but I used the opium-drugged cheroots from Manila and the trash which was sent to me from San Francisco, and I fell.

The collector's records say that when Phaya died, she was such a destitute that the locals of the village around collected money under the leadership of the collectorate for her funeral. Phaya left behind the daughter she had borne to Gopal, who had died earlier. This daughter, named Tu Tu, was brought up in poverty and not being educated, forgot all about her royal heritage except having one sorry looking poster painting of her mother in her home for veneration among the many household gods...Without money or education, Tu Tu married a local mechanic and had at least six or seven children, all of whom became more and more Indian in religion and culture as well as appearance. Tu Tu, for whom Burmese is a forgotten language, still lives in Ratnagiri as an old woman and speaks fluent Marathi with a rural Maharashtrian accent. She used to sell paper flowers to make a little money for her family in the days gone by.

—The Hindustan Times, 16 September 1995, ^[2]

See also

• France-Burma relations

References

• The Baldwin Project: Growth of the British Empire by M. B. Synge at www.mainlesson.com
• Political Topics And Discussion > Who Really Killed General Aung San? at www.bearpit.net

External links

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Thibaw_Min Thibaw Min] at Wikimedia Commons