Pagan Min

King of Burma

Pagan Min
ပုဂံမင်း

King of Burma
Prince of Pagan

Coronation

27 February 1847^[1]

Predecessor

Tharrawaddy

Successor

Mindon

Born

Maung Htin
(1811-06-21)21 June 1811
Amarapura

Died

14 March 1880(1880-03-14) (aged 68)
Mandalay

Burial

Mandalay

Consort

Min Shwe Kyu
18 queens in total

Names
Siri Sudhamma Tilokapavara Mahādhammarājadhirāja သိရီသုဓမ္မ တိလောကပဝရ မဟာဓမ္မရာဇာဓိရာဇာ

House

Konbaung

Father

Tharrawaddy

Mother

Me Myat Shwe, Princess of Taungoo

Religion

Theravada Buddhism

This article contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script.

Pagan Min (Burmese: ပုဂံမင်း, pronounced [bəɡàɰ̃ mɪ́ɰ̃]; 21 June 1811 – 14 March 1880), was the ninth king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma. Born Maung Biddhu Khyit, he was granted the title of Prince of Pagan by his father Tharrawaddy in August 1842. Pagan Min became king when Tharrawaddy died on 17 November 1846, with the formal title of His Majesty "Sri Pawara Vijaya Nanda Jatha Maha Dharma Rajadhiraja Pagan Min Taya-gyi".

Pagan Min won the power struggle to succeed his father by having his rival brothers killed. His chief ministers Maung Baing Zat and Maung Bhein enriched themselves by executing rich subjects.^[2]

The Second Anglo-Burmese War broke out during the reign of Pagan Min. In 1851 the governor of Pegu, Maung Ok, charged the captains of two British merchant ships with murder, embezzlement, and evasion of custom duties. He fined them 500 rupees, and required their debts be paid before being authorized to return to Kolkata. After receiving their complaints, Lord Dalhousie, the governor-general of British India, sent Commodore George Lambert to the king requesting a compensation of £920 and the dismissal of Maung Ok. Pagan complied by replacing Maung Ok. But on 6 January 1852, when the new governor declined to meet with a British delegation because Lambert had seized a Burmese royal ship, all British subjects were evacuated and the coast of Rangoon was placed under a blockade. Within days, Lambert's warships were bombarding Rangoon. On 7 February, Pagan wrote to Dalhousie to protest against the bombardment. On 13 February, Dalhousie sent an ultimatum to the king, demanding an equivalent of £100,000 as compensation for "having had to prepare for war", to be paid by 1 April. The ultimatum expired with no reply from Pagan, and a few days later, British troops entered Burmese territory and quickly routed Pagan's forces. Britain annexed the province of Pegu in December.^[2]

Pagan Min's half brother Mindon opposed the war; he fled with his brother Kanaung to Shwebo and raised the standard of rebellion. After a few weeks of fighting, Pagan's chief minister Magwe Mingyi went over to Mindon's side and Pagan Min abdicated on 18 February 1853, in favour of Mindon. Mindon allowed Pagan to live, and released all the European prisoners. Mindon sued for peace with the British but refused to sign a treaty ceding Burmese territory.^[2]

References

^ (Maung Maung Tin Vol. 2 2004: 56): Saturday, 13th waxing of Tabaung 1208 ME = 27 February 1847
^ ^a ^b ^c Sanderson Beck. "Burma, Malaya and Siam 1800–1950". Retrieved 2007-04-22.

Bibliography

Charney, Michael W. (2006). Powerful Learning: Buddhist Literati and the Throne in Burma's Last Dynasty, 1752–1885. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Richard Cobden (1853). How wars are got up in India: The origin of the Burmese War. University of Michigan Libraries.
Maung Maung Tin, U (2004) [1905]. Konbaung Set Yazawin (in Burmese). Vol. 1–3. Yangon: Department of Universities History Research, University of Yangon.

Regnal titles
Pagan Min Konbaung Dynasty Born: 21 June 1811 Died: 14 March 1880
Preceded by Tharrawaddy	King of Burma 17 November 1846 – 18 February 1853	Succeeded by Mindon
Royal titles
Preceded by Tharrawaddy	Heir to the Burmese Throne as Prince of Pagan August 1842 – 17 November 1846	Succeeded by Kanaung