King Mindon

First Burmese embassy to Europe

On a hot and sticky March morning, the SS Tenasserim, flying the peacock flag of the Burmese kingdom as well as the Union Jack, steamed down the Rangoon River and into the salty waters of the Indian Ocean. It was a new state-of-the-art ship, built in Glasgow for the Henderson passenger line, and came with no less than twenty well-appointed first-class cabins. On board was a delegation from the Court of Ava, led by the scholarly Kinwun Mingyi, a minister...

King Mindon’s donation of “hti” for the Shwedagon

In 1871 the British were in occupation of all of Lower Burma including Rangoon. The Chief Commissioner at the time, Sir Ashley Eden, agreed that King Mindon could donate the new hti, or crown for the Shwedagon Pagoda but insisted that it could only be done via British authorities; the hti would be received by the British and handed over by them to the Shwedagon trustees. The British believed that a direct donation would symbolize King Mindon's continuing sovereignty over all...

Panthay Rebellion of 1872

On 26 December 1872, the 16-year long "Panthay Rebellion" was crushed with the recapture of Dali and the execution of the Panthay leader, Du Wenxiu. When he was captured, Du Wenxiu took an overdose of opium but he was decapitated nonetheless. His head was encased in honey and sent to the Emperor as a gift. Tens of thousands of Panthay were slaughtered. Hundreds of thousands in total likely died as a result of the rebellion. Thousands more found refuge in...

The man who would be king – Prince of Pyinmana

The Prince of Pyinmana who had been a candidate for the throne in 1878 and was considered by the Japanese as a possible new "king of Burma" in 1942. He was born in 1872 and was the son of then King Mindon and a half-brother of King Thibaw. Educated at St Marks School, Mandalay, and at Dehra Doon, he was last surviving child of King Mindon and lived until 1963, the year NASA launched its first television satellite and the...

Kinwun Mingyi’s visit to Calcutta in 1875

This very rare photograph of the Kinwun Mingyi was taken during his visit to Calcutta in 1875 at s a turning-point in Anglo-Burmese relations. The ostensible reason for the trip was to meet the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) who was then on a tour of the Indian Empire. But the Kinwun's trip was also a last-ditch attempt to repair rapidly deteriorating relations with the British. By 1875, British interference in Burmese internal politics was growing by...

The Prince of Limbin and family, at Limbin House in Allahabad c. 1910

The Limbin Prince was a minor son of King Mindon's half brother the Kanaung Prince and a cousin of King Thibaw. He escaped the arrest and execution of many other royal princes in 1879 and from 1885-7 led a widespread resistance together with several Shan Saophas against the British occupation. He was exiled in 1887 first to Calcutta and then Allahabad, returning to Rangoon in 1911. He died in 1933 and was survived by four sons and six daughters. The...