Burmese royal titles are the royal styles that were in use by the Burmese monarchy until the disintegration of the last Burmese monarchy, the Konbaung dynasty, in 1885. These titles were exclusively used by those of royal lineage (မင်းမျိုးမင်းနွယ်; ထီးရိုးနန်းရိုး; ဆွေတော်မျိုးတော်), or more formally, Maha Zi Maha Thwei (မဟာဆီမဟာသွေး).
Kings in Burma assumed a distinctive regnal name and title, usually a combination of Pali and Sanskrit, upon ascending to the throne.
The King was known by a variety of titles, including the following:
In the early days of the Konbaung Dynasty, Kings had at most, three Senior Queens. [4] Innovations of a fourth Senior Queen and four lesser queens dated to the last quarter of the 1700s. [4]
Queens of first rank (Senior Queens) were called Nanya Mibaya [2] (နန်းရ မိဖုရား, lit. 'Queens who Possess Palaces'). The expansion and ranking of Senior Queens was an innovation during the reign of King Singu Min (1776-1782). [5] In order of precedence, they were as follows:
There was a special position between Nanya Mibaya (first rank) and Ahsaungya Mibaya (second rank) named Nanzwe Mibaya (နန်းဆွယ်မိဖုရား), for the blue-blood sisters of the King, primed to become a Nanya Mibaya if any of them died. For example, when the first Anauk Nandaw Mibaya of King Mindon, Pintale Mibaya died, her sister Yinge Mibaya, one of the four Nanzwe Mibayas of King Mindon, was replaced as the second Anauk Nandaw Mibaya. [note 1] As they were the blue-blooded ones, they could not be given the position of ordinary queens. So they became Nanzwe Mibayas. This position was created only during the reign of a king who had many queens, such as Bodawpaya and Mindon Min.
Royal Queens of second rank were known as Ahsaungya Mibaya (အဆောင်ရမိဖုရား, lit. 'Queens who Possess Royal Apartments'). These ranks were created during the reign of King Tharrawaddy Min (1837-1846). [7] In order of precedence, they were as follows:
Royal Queens of third rank were known as Shweye Hsaungya Mibaya (ရွှေရေးဆောင်ရ မိဖုရား, lit. 'Royal Queens who Possess the Gilded Chambers'). These were innovations dating to the reign of King Bodawphaya. [4] In order of precedence, they were as follows:
Royal Queens of fourth rank were considered minor consorts:
Royal concubines were typically the daughters of officials and tributary princes. [4] They received no rank and in order of precedence were as follows:
Consorts were granted titles based on rank, divided into two grades (queens and for concubines). [4]
The styles of queens contained the following words based on rank, as follows (in order of precedence):
The styles of royal concubines contained the following words based on rank, as follows (in order of precedence):
Royal princes included the sons and brothers of the King (Minnyi Mintha) who were ranked, as follows (in order of precedence):
Non-royal princes were individuals of non-royal lineage who were promoted to the rank of prince, and were divided into there ranks, each of which consisted of 18 princes at any given time, divided into 9 of the left and 9 of the right.: [9] [10] They were ranked, as follows (in order of precedence):
Princely titles were granted based on the prince's rank (of which there were 12 total), which divided into three grades, as follows (in order of precedence): [9]
The ranks of the King's daughters were determined by the rank of their mothers. These ranks in order of precedence were as follows:
The Crown Princess in line to become chief queen, specially designated to wed the Crown Prince was known as the Tabindaing Minthami (တစ်ပင်တိုင် မင်းသမီး) or as the Einshe Hteik Hta Mibaya (အိမ်ရှေ့ထိပ်ထား မိဖုရား). [6]
High-ranking court officials (အမတ်, amat) were also ranked into 9 ranks, representing their place at the Great Audience Hall during obeisance ceremonies ( gadaw ), as follows (in order of precedence): [12]
Said officials also received 11 types of titles commensurate with their rank, as follows (in order of precedence): [13] [14]
The wives of some high-ranking officials also received rank, as follows (in order of precedence): [16]
The Konbaung dynasty, also known as the Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်), was the last dynasty that ruled Burma from 1752 to 1885. It created the second-largest empire in Burmese history and continued the administrative reforms begun by the Toungoo dynasty, laying the foundations of the modern state of Burma. The reforms, however, proved insufficient to stem the advance of the British Empire, who defeated the Burmese in all three Anglo-Burmese Wars over a six-decade span (1824–1885) and ended the millennium-old Burmese monarchy in 1885.
The nats are god-like spirits venerated in Myanmar and neighbouring countries in conjunction with Buddhism. They are divided between the 37 Great Nats who were given that status by King Anawrahta when he formalized the official list of nats. Most of the 37 Great Nats were human beings who met violent deaths.
Minnyi Mintha was the common title for all Princes of the Blood of the Burmese monarchy, who were all assigned fiefdoms when they came of age, and promoted to this rank.
Princess Hteik Su Phaya Gyi, also known as Su Su Khin or Pwar May or Princess Tessie, was a Burmese princess and the final surviving royal of the Konbaung dynasty. Daughter of Princess Myat Phaya Galay, she was a senior member of the Royal House of Konbaung.
Minkhaung Medaw was a principal queen of King Taka Yut Pi of Hanthawaddy (Ramanya) from c. 1535 to 1539, and of King Min Bin of Mrauk U (Arakan) from c. 1540 to 1554. A daughter of King Bayin Htwe of Prome, the queen is also referred to as Pegu Mibaya and Tanzaung Mibaya in the royal chronicles.
Hsinbyumashin was a senior queen of King Mindon Min during the Konbaung dynasty. She was known for Bronze Hall Massacre. She was the daughter of King Bagyidaw and his consort Nanmadaw Me Nu (Chief Queen of King Bagyidaw). She was one of the most influential queen consorts in Burmese history, and often regarded as the power behind the throne.
Thiri Pawara Atula Tilawka Maha Yazeinda Adhipati Yadana Dewi, commonly known as Setkya Dewi or Sekkya Dewi, was Queen of the Konbaung Kingdom of Burma from 26 March 1853 to 12 November 1876 as the chief queen of Mindon Min. Born to Tharrawaddy Min and his wife, she held the position of the Tabindaing Princess during her father's reign. Being renowned for her knowledge of modern science and astrology, Setkya Dewi was popular with the British, who described her as a well-educated woman, and visitors would often bring her gifts related to her astrological interests.
Khin The, commonly known by her regnal title Thiri Maha Yadana Mingala Dewi, was the Queen of the Northern Palace of King Mindon Min during the Konbaung dynasty. Among several queen consorts, Khin The was the favored queen of King Mindon.
Seindon Mibaya, known by her royal title, Thiri Pobba Yadana Dewi, was a senior queen consort of King Mindon during the Konbaung dynasty. Being a cousin of King Mindon, she was promoted to a Nanzwe Mibaya and received the appanage of Seindon when he ascended the throne.
Achoke Tan Saya Pe was a Burmese poet during the late Konbaung era, famous for his anti-colonial Burmese lyric poems called taydats. His contemporary poet is U Ponnya, and same-name poet is Taungthaman Le-sar Maung Pe Nge.
Minye Thihakyaw, commonly known as the Prince of Pyinzi, was a royal prince during the Konbaung dynasty, especially renowned for his composition of classical songs.
Thiri Thu Sandar Dewi, commonly known as Limban Mibaya, was a queen of the fourth rank of King Mindon during the Konbaung dynasty.
Thiri Mahar Thu Mingalar Sandar Dewi, commonly known as Magway Mibaya, was a senior queen consort of King Mindon during the late Konbaung dynasty.
Maha Thu Thiri Dhammayaza, commonly known as the Prince of Thonze or Thonze Minthagyi, was a first-ranked royal prince of the late Konbaung dynasty. He was a senior son of King Mindon and was the Viceroy of Chindwin Province.
Thiri Maha Thu Dhammayaza, commonly known as the Prince of Mekkhaya, was a prince of the first rank of the late Konbaung dynasty. He was a senior son of King Mindon and was the Viceroy to Taungdwingyi Province. He was considered one of the four most skilled sons of King Mindon, alongside the princes of Thonze, Nyaungyan and Myingun.
Mindon Min, the tenth king of the Konbaung Kingdom, died in Mandalay Palace at the age of 64 on the afternoon of 1 October 1878. A mourning period of seven days preceded his funeral, which took place on 7 October. His son Thibaw was proclaimed the new monarch by the Hluttaw.
Kyaymyin Mibaya was a queen of the fourth rank of King Mindon of the Konbaung dynasty of Myanmar (Burma). She was the youngest, last and richest queen of King Mindon, who had 45 queens in total. She was one of the queens of the Royal Treasury.
Myoza or Myosa is a high-ranking royal title and position for Burmese royalty and nobility. Various types of myoza existed depending on the dynastic period. Some myozas possessed broad administrative powers, while others only wore a titular title and possessed the right to taxes in their territory, without political authority.
Htayanka Hteik Kaung Tin, also known as Htanyanka Princess, was a Burmese royal princess. She married her half-brother Pyinmana Prince. During the Japanese occupation, the couple were considered a potential puppet king and queen by the Japanese government but refused the role.
