Supayalay (; 1863 – 25 June 1912) was a junior queen consort of the Konbaung dynasty, and was married to her half-brother Thibaw Min, the last monarch in the dynasty, in 1878. She was one of the three only queens of King Thibaw.
Early life
Supayalay, born in 1863 at the Royal Palace, in Mandalay as
Hteik Supayalay, was the youngest of three daughters between King
Mindon Min and
Hsinbyumashin.
She was a full-blooded sister of
Supayagyi and
Supayalat. She received the appanage of Yamethin and was therefore known as the Princess of Yamethin, with the royal title of Sri Suriya Singha Ratna Devi.
Her 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 eldest sister Hteik Supayagyi.
Exile
The royal family's reign lasted just seven years when Thibaw Min was defeated in the Third Anglo-Burmese War and forced to abdicate by the
British Empire in 1885. On 25 November 1885 they were taken away in a covered carriage, leaving
Mandalay Palace by the southern gate of the walled city along the streets lined by British soldiers and their wailing subjects, to the River
Ayeyarwady River where a steamboat called
Thuriya (Sun) awaited. They were exiled to the remote coastal town of Ratnagiri in India, where they lived for over 30 years. Her sister Supayagyi and the queen mother were sent to
Dawei (now Dawei).
She died on 25 June 1912 at
Ratnagiri, India.
