Mindon မင်းတုန်းမင်း |
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King of Burma Prince of Mindon |
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Reign | 18 February 1853 – 1 October 1878 | ||||
Coronation | 6 July 1854 | ||||
Predecessor | Pagan | ||||
Successor | Thibaw | ||||
Born |
Inwa |
8 July 1808||||
Died | 1 October 1878 Mandalay |
(aged 70)||||
Burial | Mandalay Palace | ||||
Consort |
Satkyar Daewi Full:သီရိပဝရမဟာရာဇိန္ဒာဓိပတိ ရတနာ ဒေဝီ Queen of Burma62 queens in total |
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Issue | 110 children including: Thibaw, Queen Supayalatt, the Queen of Burma | ||||
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House | Konbaung | ||||
Father | Tharrawaddy | ||||
Mother | Burmese name-, Chandra Mata Mahay, Queen of the south Royal Chamber | ||||
Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
Full name | |
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Maung Lwin Siri Pavara Vizara Nanda Yasapandita Mahadhammarajatiraja (သီရိ ပဝရ ဝိဇရာ နန္ဒ ယသပဏ္ဍိတ မဟာမမ္မရာဇာတိရာဇာ) |
Satkyar Daewi
Mindon Min (Burmese: မင်းတုန်းမင်း, pronounced: [mɪ́ɴdóʊɴ mɪ́ɴ]; 8 July 1808 – 1 October 1878) was the penultimate king of Burma (Myanmar) from 1853 to 1878. He was one of the most popular and revered kings of Burma. Under his half brother King Pagan, the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852 ended with the annexation of Lower Burma by the British Empire. Mindon and his younger brother Kanaung overthrew their half brother King Pagan. He spent most of his reign trying to defend the upper portion of his country from British encroachments, and to modernize his kingdom.
King Mindon founded the last royal capital of Burma, Mandalay, in 1857. His younger brother Kanaung proved to be a great administrator and modernizer. During Mindon's reign, scholars were sent to France, Italy, the United States, and Great Britain, in order to learn about the tremendous progress achieved by the Industrial Revolution.
During Mindon's reign, the following reforms were undertaken: centralization of the kingdom's internal administration, introduction of a salary system for the bureaucracy (to dampen the authority and income of bureaucrats), fixed judicial fees, comprehensive penal laws, reorganization of the financial system, removal of trade barriers including custom duties, reform of the thathameda taxes (to increase direct taxation), and modernization of the kingdom's army and introduction of new police forces.
A Burmese manuscript (Or 13681) held by the British Library depicts "seven scenes of King Mindon’s donations at various places during the first four years of his reign (1853-57)," including a monastery, rest houses, and gifts for monks.
Mindon introduced the first machine-struck coins to Burma, and in 1871 also held the Fifth Buddhist council in Mandalay. He had already created the world's largest book in 1868, the Tipitaka, 729 pages of the Buddhist Pali Canon inscribed in marble and each stone slab housed in a small stupa at the Kuthodaw Pagoda at the foot of Mandalay Hill.