Supayagyi

Supayagyi, born in 1854^[1] as Hteiksu Phayagyi (ထိပ်စုဖုရားကြီး), was the eldest of three daughters between King Mindon and Hsinbyumashin. She was a full-blooded sister of Supayalat and Supayalay. She received the appanage of Mong Nawng and was therefore known as the Princess of Mong Nawng, with the royal title of Susīriratanamaṅgaladevī.^[2]

After placing Thibaw on the throne, the ambitious Hsinbyumashin offered her eldest daughter, Hteik Supayagyi, to be his queen. However, during the royal Aggamahesi coronation, Supayalat pushed her way next to her sister in order to be anointed queen alongside her, thus breaking an ancient royal custom. This resulted in two queens being anointed simultaneously, a situation that had never occurred before in Burmese history. Supayalat's marriage to Thibaw was never consummated, and she is known to have enforced monogamy on a Burmese king for the first and last time in history. However, Thibaw later married Supayalay, Princess of Yamethin, her youngest sister.

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 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 Irrawaddy where a steamboat called Thuriya (Sun) awaited. Supayagyi and the queen mother were sent to Tavoy (now Dawei).^[3] She died with Buddhist nun life (Thilashin) on 25 February 1912 in Mingun after her mother, who died in 1900.^[1] Her remains were interred in the southern section of Shwedagon Pagoda in modern-day Yangon.^[4]