Shin Myat Hla (Burmese: ရှင်မြတ်လှ, pronounced[ʃɪ̀ɴmjaʔl̥a̰]; 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 the 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. She was born in early 1388.[note 1] She grew up in Taungdwin which her father had ruled since at least 1364.[note 2] She had at least one full younger brother, Thiri Zeya Thura.[4]
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, c. March 1410,[5] the king gave her to Thado, 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 ("lord governor"). Over the next 16 years, her husband came to be known as "Mohnyin Thado". The couple had four children (two sons and two daughters): Minye Kyawswa, Narapati, Shin Hla Myat, and Saw Hla Htut.[6]
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.[4] 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 the Konbaung dynasty, was an 11th generation descendant of the queen.[3]
^(Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 236): According to the inscription at the Pagan Shwe Kyaung (Golden Monastery) donated by the queen herself, she was 22 (in her 23rd year) when she was married to Thado who was 30 (31st year); and she was 50 (51st year) when her husband of 29 years Thado died at age 59 (60th year). Since they were married in c. March 1410 (at the end of the 1409–10 campaign) and Thado died in 1439, she was born c. April 1388.
^(Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 398, 400): Her father declared himself king with the title of Thettawshay 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).
^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).
^(Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 62–63): Queen Mya Hla's fresco writings from the Shwe Kyaung Monastery in Pagan (Bagan), her paternal grandfather was Thray Sithu, and her maternal grandfather was Thettawshay. The writers of Hmannan identified the Thettawshay as Thettawshay of Myinsaing, who was a son-in-law of King Thihathu. Since King Thihathu died in 1325, the maternal grandmother was unlikely to have been Thihathu's daughter. It is likely that Queen Myat Hla and Thiri Zeya Thura's maternal grandmother was another wife of Thet-taw-shay.
