Shin Sawbu
Encyclopedia
Shin Sawbu was the queen of Hanthawaddy
from 1453 to 1472. Queen Shin Sawbu was also known as Binnya Thau or Old Queen in Mon. Queen Shin Sawbu and Queen Jamadevi
of Haripunjaya are the two most famous queens among the small number of queens who ruled in mainland Southeast Asia
. Shin Sawbu's reign began a 50-year period of peace between Burman Ava Kingdom
in Upper Burma
and Mon Hanthawaddy Pegu in Lower Burma.
and Pali
: vihara
"monastery" + devi
"goddess" or "queen" ), which likely means "queen of the monastery". 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.
ascended the throne but his younger brothers Binnya Ran
and Binnya Kyan rebelled. By the invitation of Binnya Kyan, King Thihathu of Ava came down with an army. Binnya Dhammaraza pacified his brothers by making Binnya Ran the crown prince as well as giving the governorship of the Irrawaddy 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.
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. King Thihathu was very fond of her but he died during a military expedition in the north in 1426. 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 1430, after seven years of living at Ava, at the age of 36, the queen escaped with the help of her Mon monk preceptors and returned to Pegu accompanied by them.
In 1457, shortly after ascending the throne, the Buddhist world celebrated the two thousandth anniversary of the Buddha's Paranirvana which in Southeast Asia is dated to the year 543 B.C.
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 the Shwedagon pagoda.
Shin Sawbu chose a monk to succeed her on the throne of Pegu. The monk Pitakahara, who had helped her escape from Ava, left the sangha
, was given the titles Punnaraja and Dhammazedi
, and became her son-in-law and a suitable heir to the throne by marrying her younger daughter Mipakathin.
next to the Shwedagon Pagoda until the end of her life in 1470 or 1472. Even after she moved to Dagon she is said to have still worn a crown.
The actually 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.
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 the glebe lands supporting the pagoda to Danok. 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."
She also had her own weight in gold (25 viss) beaten out into gold leaf
and covered the Shwedagon pagoda with this gold leaf. The inhabitants of Dagon donated 5,000 viss of bronze to the pagoda.
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 near Martaban. 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 a Tai language used supposedly because "this title had been given to the Wareru
dynasty by the Thai king."
The story of how the queen chose a successor runs as follows. After ruling for only seven years, she decided to abdicate. 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. 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?'."
Singer provides an alternative story with the governor of Pathein
, 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.
Baña Thau means "Old Queen" in the Mon 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'."
The Mon history Nidana 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.
The stupa
that contained her remains is said to be at a monastery in Sanchaung Township
of modern-day Yangon
near the Shwedagon 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 Sawpu Road (Windsor Road).
Hanthawaddy Kingdom
The Hanthawaddy Kingdom was the dominant kingdom that ruled lower Burma from 1287 to 1539. The Mon-speaking kingdom was founded as Ramannadesa by King Wareru following the collapse of the Pagan Empire in 1287 as a nominal vassal state of Sukhothai Kingdom, and of the Mongol Yuan dynasty...
from 1453 to 1472. Queen Shin Sawbu was also known as Binnya Thau or Old Queen in Mon. Queen Shin Sawbu and Queen Jamadevi
Jamadevi
Queen Jamadevi , also known as Nang Chamthewi of Hariphunchai, Channa Devi or Channadevi .First ruler of the Mon kingdom of Hariphunchai . She gave birth to twins, one of whom succeeded her as ruler of Lamphun Queen Jamadevi (Thai: พระนางจามเทวี) (Pali: Camadevi), also known as Nang Chamthewi of...
of Haripunjaya are the two most famous queens among the small number of queens who ruled in mainland Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. Shin Sawbu's reign began a 50-year period of peace between Burman Ava Kingdom
Ava Kingdom
The Ava Kingdom was the dominant kingdom that ruled upper Burma from 1364 to 1555. Founded in 1364, the kingdom was the successor state to the petty kingdoms that had ruled central Burma since the collapse of Pagan Empire in the late 13th century...
in Upper Burma
Upper Burma
Upper Burma refers to a geographic region of Burma , traditionally encompassing Mandalay and its periphery , or more broadly speaking, Kachin and Shan States....
and Mon Hanthawaddy Pegu in Lower Burma.
Early life
Shin Sawbu was the only daughter of the Mon King Razadarit who had two sons as well. She was born on Wednesday in 1394 to the chief queen Thuddhamaya . At birth she was given the name Viharadevi (from SanskritSanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
and Pali
Páli
- External links :* *...
: vihara
Vihara
Vihara is the Sanskrit and Pali term for a Buddhist monastery. It originally meant "a secluded place in which to walk", and referred to "dwellings" or "refuges" used by wandering monks during the rainy season....
"monastery" + devi
Devi
Devī is the Sanskrit word for Goddess, used mostly in Hinduism, its related masculine term is deva. Devi is synonymous with Shakti, the female aspect of the divine, as conceptualized by the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. She is the female counterpart without whom the male aspect, which represents...
"goddess" or "queen" ), which likely means "queen of the monastery". At age 20 she was married to Binnya Bwe (Smin Chesao), Razadarit's nephew and had a son, Binnya Waru
Binnya Waru
Binnya Waru was the twelfth king of Hanthawaddy Kingdom who reigned from 1446 to 1450. He was a nephew and adopted son of King Binnya Ran I after whom he succeeded to the Hanthawaddy throne. The king was known for his strict disciplinary rule...
and two daughters, Netaka Taw and Netaka Thin. Her husband died when she was just 25.
Residence at Ava (1423-30)
In 1422, Sawbu's father King Razadarit died. The king's eldest son Binnya DhammarazaBinnya Dhammaraza
Binnya Dhammaraza was the tenth king of Hanthawaddy Pegu who reigned for three tumultuous years between 1422 and 1426. Having ascended to the Hanthawaddy throne after his father Razadarit died in a hunting accident, Binnya Dhammaraza faced both internal rebellions by his brothers Binnya Ran I and...
ascended the throne but his younger brothers Binnya Ran
Binnya Ran I
Binnya Ran I was the eleventh king of Hanthawaddy Pegu who reigned from 1426 to 1446. As crown prince, he ended the Forty Years' War with the rival Ava Kingdom in 1423. He came to the throne after poisoning his brother King Binnya Dhammaraza in 1426...
and Binnya Kyan rebelled. By the invitation of Binnya Kyan, King Thihathu of Ava came down with an army. Binnya Dhammaraza pacified his brothers by making Binnya Ran the crown prince as well as giving the governorship of the Irrawaddy delta
Irrawaddy Delta
The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Ayeyarwady Region , the lowest expanse of land in Burma that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, 290 km to the south at the mouth of the Ayeyarwady River...
, 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.
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. King Thihathu was very fond of her but he died during a military expedition in the north in 1426. 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 1430, after seven years of living at Ava, at the age of 36, the queen escaped with the help of her Mon monk preceptors and returned to Pegu accompanied by them.
Reign at Pegu (1453-60)
All members of Pegu's male line to the throne having been exhausted, Shin Sawbu ascended the throne as queen in 1453. Two of her brothers, Binnya Dhammayaza and Banya Ran I, and one of her sons, Binnya Waru, had already ruled as kings of Pegu.In 1457, shortly after ascending the throne, the Buddhist world celebrated the two thousandth anniversary of the Buddha's Paranirvana which in Southeast Asia is dated to the year 543 B.C.
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 the Shwedagon pagoda.
Shin Sawbu chose a monk to succeed her on the throne of Pegu. The monk Pitakahara, who had helped her escape from Ava, left the sangha
Sangha
Sangha is a word in Pali or Sanskrit that can be translated roughly as "association" or "assembly," "company" or "community" with common goal, vision or purpose...
, was given the titles Punnaraja and Dhammazedi
Dhammazedi
Dhammazedi was the 16th king of Hanthawaddy, who reigned from 1472 to 1492, and is considered one of the most enlightened rulers in Burmese history, and by some accounts "the greatest" of all Hanthawaddy kings. The former Buddhist monk, educated in the rival kingdom of Ava in his youth, was a...
, and became her son-in-law and a suitable heir to the throne by marrying her younger daughter Mipakathin.
Reign at Dagon (1460-1472)
Shin Sawbu lived in DagonDagon
Dagon was originally an Assyro-Babylonian fertility god who evolved into a major northwest Semitic god, reportedly of grain and fish and/or fishing...
next to the Shwedagon Pagoda until the end of her life in 1470 or 1472. Even after she moved to Dagon she is said to have still worn a crown.
The actually 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.
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 the glebe lands supporting the pagoda to Danok. 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."
She also had her own weight in gold (25 viss) beaten out into gold leaf
Gold leaf
right|thumb|250px|[[Burnishing]] gold leaf with an [[agate]] stone tool, during the water gilding processGold leaf is gold that has been hammered into extremely thin sheets and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades...
and covered the Shwedagon pagoda with this gold leaf. The inhabitants of Dagon donated 5,000 viss of bronze to the pagoda.
Stone Inscriptions
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 near Martaban. 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 a Tai language used supposedly because "this title had been given to the Wareru
Wareru
Wareru was the founder of the Ramanya Kingdom located in today's Lower Burma . The kingdom is more commonly known as Kingdom of Hanthawady Pegu , or simply Pegu although the kingdom's first capital was Martaban...
dynasty by the Thai king."
Mon folk traditions
At the end of the nineteenth century, some Mons are said to have regarded the British Queen Victoria as the reincarnation of Shin Sawbu.The story of how the queen chose a successor runs as follows. After ruling for only seven years, she decided to abdicate. 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. 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?'."
Singer provides an alternative story with the governor of Pathein
Pathein
Pathein , also called Bassein, is a port city with a 2004 population estimated at 215,600, and the capital of the Ayeyarwady Region, Burma. It lies on the Pathein River , which is a western branch of the Irrawaddy River....
, 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.
Baña Thau means "Old Queen" in the Mon language
Mon language
The Mon language is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon, who live in Burma and Thailand. Mon, like the related language Cambodian—but unlike most languages in Mainland Southeast Asia—is not tonal. Mon is spoken by more than a million people today. In recent years, usage of Mon has...
. 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'."
The Mon history Nidana 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.
Dispute over duration of reign
Some hold that Shin Sawbu ruled for seven years, others seventeen years. Shorto first hypothesized that she might have ruled jointly with Dhammazedi. Guillon holds that Sawbu and Dhammazedi ruled jointly with Dhammazedi ruling over Pegu and Shinsawbu ruling over Dagon. Dagon had long been the traditional appanage of Mon queens.Palace and burial locations
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.The stupa
Stupa
A stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha, used by Buddhists as a place of worship....
that contained her remains is said to be at a monastery in Sanchaung Township
Sanchaung Township
Sanchaung Township is located in the north central part of Yangon. The township comprises 18 wards, and shares borders with Kamayut township in the north, Kamayut township and Bahan township in the east, Kyimyindaing township in the west, and Dagon township and Ahlon township in the south...
of modern-day Yangon
Yangon
Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...
near the Shwedagon 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 Sawpu Road (Windsor Road).