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Supayalat (, ; 13 December 1859 – 24 November 1925), also spelt Suphayalat, was the last queen of Burma who reigned in Mandalay (1878–1885), born to King Mindon Min and Queen of Alenandaw (; also known as Hsinbyumashin or Lady of the White Elephant). The British corruption of her name was "Soup Plate". She was married to her half-brother, Thibaw Min, who became the last king of the Konbaung dynasty in 1878, upon Mindon Min's death. She is best known for engineering a massacre of 80 to 100 royal family members, to prevent potential rivals from usurping Thibaw's power, although she had always denied any knowledge of the plot, which may have been hatched by her mother together with some of the ministers, including the chancellor Kinwun Mingyi U Kaung.
King Thibaw was known for his reliance on Supayalat. Although Thibaw was king, many historians say it was Supayalat who actually ruled the country. The bloody coup that brought her and Thibaw to power associated her name with cruelty, brutality and barbarity. As a greatest achievement of Supayalat, she changed the royal tradition of polygamy to monogamy on a Burmese king for the first and the last time in history and never allowed Thibaw to take another woman as a consort. Supayalat executed Daing Khin Khin, the secret concubine of King Thibaw, even though she was pregnant.
In Burmese history, Supayalat is remembered for her ego, cruelty, and excessive pride, serving as the figure held responsible for the kingdom's fall into the hands of the imperialists. She became the embodiment of a Burmese proverb: "" (မိန်းမဖျက် ပြည်ပျက်).
Hsinbyumashin had planned to arrange a marriage between Thibaw and her eldest daughter, Supayagyi, not Supayalat, but Thibaw declared his love for Supayalat.
In 1878, Thibaw succeeded his father in a succession massacre. Hsinbyumashin, one of Mindon's queens, had grown dominant at the Mandalay court during Mindon's final days. Under the guise that Mindon wanted to bid his children (other princes and princesses) farewell, Hsinbyumashin had all royals of close age (who could potentially be heir to the throne) killed by edict, to ensure that Thibaw and her oldest daughter Hteik Supayagyi would assume the throne.
The ambitious Hsinbyumashin, after putting Thibaw on the throne, offered Supayagyi to be his queen, but during the royal wedding ceremony Supayalat pushed in next to her sister to be anointed queen at the same time, breaking ancient custom. Her sister's marriage was never consummated, and Supayalat was said to have forced monogamy on a Burmese king for the first and the last time in history, even though Thibaw also subsequently married her youngest sister Hteik Supayalay, Princess of Yamethin. Supayalat was 19 and Thibaw 20 when they ascended the lion throne ( Thihathana palin). Many historians and media accused Supayalat of also engineering the massacre, but she denied this:
She advocated for war with the British and consistently rejected any peace process with them. As U Kaung journeyed across the globe, he witnessed the might of the British military firsthand. When he implored King Thibaw at the royal court to avoid conflict with the British, Supayalat replied:
She resisted efforts by reformist ministers to limit royal authority, particularly in matters related to royal spending. Western historians have documented that Queen Supayalat often rewarded her favorite servants, court musicians, dancers, and entertainers with significant amounts of gold and jewelry.
Supayalat never lost her composure, and was said to have asked a Tommy Atkins by the wayside for a light to smoke a Burmese cheroot. She was pregnant and accompanied by her husband, their two daughters, her two sisters, and her mother; the rest of their party followed on foot. The troops had nicknamed her "Soup Plate", and in the commotion and haste that attended their abduction, some of the crown jewels disappeared including a large ruby called Nga Mauk that Colonel Sladen had insisted on being handed over for safekeeping. Thibaw saw an opportunity in 1911 when King George V visited India, and wrote for the return of the Burmese crown jewels, but only received a reply that Col. Sladen had died in 1890. Nga Mauk was believed to have subsequently turned up as the largest ruby on the British crown; it was recognised by Princess of Kyundaung in whose charge the ruby used to be.
On 10 December 1885 the royal family, minus the queen mother and Supayagyi who were sent to Dawei, was taken to Madras where their third daughter was born, and in April the next year they were moved to Ratnagiri on the west coast where they could no longer look across the Bay of Bengal to the land they had been forced to leave. Supayalat gave birth to her fourth and youngest daughter in 1887; they were not given a proper residence commensurate with their status until 1911 when Thibaw Palace was built by the government. In 1914 the royal princesses had an ear-piercing ceremony (နားသွင်းမင်္ဂလာ nahtwin mingala) according to Burmese custom. Some of the family members, court officials and entertainers including the famous orchestra of Sein Beida and the Saung Deiwa Einda Maung Maung Gyi from Burma were permitted to attend the ceremony. Although Supayalat's first born was a boy he did not survive infancy, and she had also lost another daughter. The royal princesses were named as follows:
Supayalat returned to Rangoon in 1919, confining her under house arrest. She was never allowed to leave her home, which was under constant observation by the police. While confined to her residence, Supayalat upheld the longstanding traditions of the Burmese court, with the Queen positioned above her guests and servants gliding around the room on their stomachs. She had lived on a pension and in her last days her closest adviser was Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, the great writer and nationalist leader, who revered her for her defiant stand against colonialism and who had witnessed at the age of nine the fall of the monarchy and the abduction of the royal couple in Mandalay.
At the time of her return to Burma, the country was in the grip of nationalist fervor. She became a focus of anti-colonial and nationalist sentiment. Hmaing founded the Protection Committee for the Queen, with other nationalists. The committee pressed the British government to improve Suphayalat's living conditions and provide her with a small allowance. Hmaing was a boarder at Myadaung Monastery built by the queen who never had the chance to conduct an opening ceremony ( yeizetcha, literally "pour drops of water", in order to call on the goddess of earth to witness the good deed) as it had only been recently completed.
Supayalat disdained British rule to the end, never regarded herself as beholden to the British who she believed robbed her of her kingdom with all the wealth and riches therein. She shunned British products and any association with her country's colonial rulers. Only a few British visitors were welcomed into her presence—among them, the British author Noel Whiting, who sympathized with the Burmese nationalist cause.
She died from a heart attack in 1925, just before her 66th birthday. Although the colonial government declared the day of her funeral a national holiday, the royal family's request for her to be buried in Mandalay was also refused. Her funeral was, however, held with pomp and ceremony as befitted a Burmese queen, organised by the of Yaunghwe and Hsipaw. Her body lay in state, shielded under eight white royal umbrellas, attended by 90 Buddhist monks and the British governor Sir Harcourt Butler with a guard of honour of the Mounted Police complete with a 30 gun salute.
Supayalat lies buried at Kandawmin Garden Mausolea near the Shwedagon Pagoda between the tombs of Khin Kyi, mother of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, and the former UN secretary general U Thant.
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