Tharrawaddy Min

Who was Tharrawaddy Min?

Tharrawaddy Min was the 8th king of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma. He repudiated the Treaty of Yandabo and almost went to war with the British.

Tharrawaddy was born Maung Khin to Crown Prince Thado Minsaw and Princess Min Kye on 14 March 1787. When his elder brother Bagyidaw ascended the throne in 1819, Tharrawaddy was appointed Heir Apparent. As crown prince, he fought in the First Anglo-Burmese War. In February 1837, he raised the standard of rebellion after escaping to Shwebo, the ancestral place of the Konbaung kings. Tharrawaddy succeeded in overthrowing Bagyidaw in April and was crowned king. Princess Min Myat Shwe, a granddaughter of Hsinbyushin, whom he married in 1809, was crowned as his chief queen.

In 1841 King Tharrawaddy donated a 42-ton bell called the Maha Tissada Gandha Bell and 20 kilograms of goldplating to the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. His reign was rife with rumours of preparations for another war with the British who had added the Arakan and Tenasserim to their dominions. It was however not until 1852, after Tharrawaddy was succeeded by his son Pagan Min, that the Second Anglo-Burmese War broke out.