Minyekyawswa of Ava

This article is about King Minyekyawswa. See Minyekyawswa for the crown prince and commander-in-chief of Ava. For other people named Minyekyawswa, see Minyekyawswa (disambiguation).

Minyekyawswa of Ava မင်းရဲကျော်စွာ (အင်းဝ)
King of Ava
Reign	c. February 1440 – January 1443
Predecessor	Mohnyin Thado
Successor	Narapati
House	Mohnyin
Father	Mohnyin Thado
Born	c. February 1412 773 ME (Thursday born)
Died	January 1443[1] (aged 31) Tabodwe 804 ME[2] Ava
Religion	Theravada Buddhism

Minyekyawswa of Ava (Burmese: မင်းရဲကျော်စွာ (အင်းဝ), pronounced [mɪ́ɴjɛ́ tɕɔ̀zwà]; 1412–1443) was the ninth king of Ava. He spent all of his 3-year reign asserting his rule over his kingdom, and defending against raids by the Shan State of Mogaung. He recovered Toungoo in 1442, which had successfully revolted his father Mohnyin Thado's rule in 1437. He died at Ava in January 1443 while his forces were laying siege to Mogaung.^[1] He was succeeded by his brother Narapati, the governor of Prome.^[3]

Reign

Minyekyawswa's short reign was the archetypal reign of the successive Ava kings in that each king would have to reestablish his rule over his territory. One his first acts as king was to mediate in a conflict between the Saophas (Chiefs) of Kale and Mohnyin, and to reassert his rule over the two Shan States, which had been under Ava's suzerainty since the reign of King Minkhaung I. He sent an army to the north. When the expedition arrived at Myedu both chieftains submitted to Ava in fear that the other one would gain the upper hand by submitting first. He installed his brothers-in-law as new saophas.

After securing the loyalty of Kale and Mohnyin, the king quickly turned to the territories much closer to Ava. Toungoo had been in revolt since 1437 with Hanthawaddy Pegu backing, and the regions around Toungoo such as Taungdwingyi, Yamethin, and Pinle also raised rebellions when he became king. In late 1440, he sent his armies to reclaim the rebellious regions. They could not take well-defended Pinle and Yamethin but took Taungdwingyi. Most importantly, Ava recovered Toungoo in 1442 after a pitched battle in which the ruler of Toungoo was killed in an elephant duel.^[1]

Pinle and Yamethin stayed out of Ava's control for the remainder of his reign as the king had to defend against renewed Shan raids starting in 1441. By the late 1430s, Thonganbwa, the saopha of Mogaung, had gained control of a large swath of territory between Chinese controlled Yunnan and central Burma. His capital Mogaung was just a short distance away from Ava-controlled Mohnyin. In 1441, Thohanbwa launched several raids into both Ava and Yunnan. In response, Minyekyawswa sent his brother-in-laws, the Burmese governors of Mohnyin and Kale, to attack Mogaung. In 1442, Ava forces laid siege to Mogaung, which was heavily fortified. While the siege dragged on, the king died at Ava in January 1443.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Jon Fernquest (Autumn 2006). "Crucible of War: Burma and the Ming in the Tai Frontier Zone (1382-1454)". SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research 4 (2): 61–63. http://web.soas.ac.uk/burma/SBBR4.2/4.2Fernquest.pdf. 
2. ^ "Ava Kings" (in Burmese). Hmannan Yazawin. 2 (2003 ed.). Yangon: Ministry of Information, Myanmar. 1829. p. 80. 
3. ^ Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur P. Phayre (1883). History of Burma (1967 ed.). London: Susil Gupta. pp. 84–85. 

Minyekyawswa of Ava Ava Kingdom Born: February 1412 Died: January 1443
Regnal titles
Preceded by Mohnyin Thado	King of Ava February 1440 – January 1443	Succeeded by Narapati
Royal titles
Preceded by Minhlange	Heir to the Burmese Throne 7 May 1427 – February 1440	Succeeded by Narapati

Persondata
Name	Minyekyawswa Of Ava
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 1412
Place of birth
Date of death	January 1443
Place of death	Ava