Taw Phaya

Prince Edward Taw Phaya (Burmese: တော်ဘုရား; also known as Tun Aung, 22 March 1924 – 12 January 2019) was the Pretender to the Throne of Burma (abolished in 1885). He was the second son of Princess Myat Phaya Galay, the fourth daughter of King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat.[1] Upon the death of his aunt Myat Phaya Lat in 1956, he became the Head of the Royal House of Konbaung.[2]

Taw Phaya
Prince Taw Phaya
Head of the Royal House of Konbaung
Tenure	4 April 1956 – 12 January 2019
Predecessor	Myat Phaya Lat
Successor	Prince Richard Taw Phaya Myat Gyi
Born	22 March 1924 Maymyo, British Burma
Died	12 January 2019 (aged 94) Pyin U Lwin, Myanmar
Spouse	Phaya Rita ​ ​ (m. 1944; died 2019)​
Issue	5 sons, 2 daughters: Richard Taw Phaya Myat Gyi David Taw Phaya Myat Edward Taw Phaya Myat Nge Joseph Taw Phaya Myat Aye Paul Taw Phaya Myat Thaike Ann-Marie Su Phaya Lay Rose-Marie Su Phaya Naing
Father	Ko Ko Naing
Mother	Myat Phaya Galay

Biography

Six siblings of Taw Phaya

Taw Phaya was born on 22 March 1924 in Maymyo, British Burma to Ko Ko Naing, a former monk, and Princess Myat Phaya Galay who was the fourth daughter of King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat.

He attended high school at St. Patrick's High School Moulmein and St. Paul's School in Rangoon. He worked as director of Thibaw Commercial Syndicate (TCS) Co. Ltd in 1951 from 1962. He was also Vice President of Association for Buddhism as the National Religion in 1958.

On 4 May 1944, he married his first cousin, Princess Phaya Rita. She was the daughter of Prince Kodawgyi Naing and Princess Myat Phaya, who was the third daughter of Burma's last king, Thibaw Min and the sister of his mother.

Taw Phaya family was not involved in politics, but supported the military caretaker government's anti-communist mission in 1959. The military officials focused on the Taw Phaya family to be used in the operation and invited them to come Shwebo, was the beginning of the Konbaung dynasty. After seeing local women spreading their hair to welcome the Taw Phaya family, the Tatmadaw thought it could compete with them for power. As a result, the military later ignored the royal family.[3]

Documentary film

In 2017, Taw Phaya and his elder sister Hteik Su Phaya Gyi, nephew Soe Win, niece Devi Thant Sin appeared as the main characters of We Were Kings, a documentary film by Alex Bescoby and Max Jones. The film premiered in Mandalay on 4 November 2017 at the Irrawaddy Literary Festival and also screened in Thailand at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.[4] The film is about Myanmar's history, but also about the descendants of the last kings of Burma who lived unassuming lives in modern Myanmar, unrecognized and unknown.[5]

Death

Taw Phaya died on 12 January 2019 at his Pyin Oo Lwin Residence.[6]

Family

Taw Phaya had five sons and two daughters:

• Richard Taw Phaya Myat Gyi (born 14 May 1945). Heir and second in line to the throne.
• David Taw Phaya Myat (born 1 April 1947).
• Edward Taw Phaya Myat Nge (born 27 April 1948 - died 14 November 1955).
• Joseph Taw Phaya Myat Aye (born 19 March 1950).
• Paul Taw Phaya Myat Thaike (born 19 February 1954).
• Ann-Marie Su Phaya Lay (born 10 September 1952).
• Rose-Marie Su Phaya Naing (born 21 April 1956).

Ancestry

Ancestors of Taw Phaya
2. Ko Ko Naing 1. Taw Phaya 24. Tharrawaddy Min (= 28) 12. Mindon Min (= 14) 25. Chandra Mata Mahay (= 29) 6. Thibaw Min 26. Maung Mey 13. Prabha Devi 3. Mayat Phaya Galay 28. Tharrawaddy Min (= 24) 14. Mindon Min (= 12) 29. Chandra Mata Mahay (= 25) 7. Prabha Ratna Devi 30. Sagaing Min 15. Hsinphyuma Shin 31. Rajendra Ratna Devi

References

1. Kennedy, Phoebe, Burmese dictator lives like a king, laments the nation's last royal, published in The Independent, 12 March 2010
2. "Thai soap angers family of Myanmar's last king". Yahoo! News. 12 March 2017.
3. "သီပေါနောက်က တော်ဘုရားများ". BBC News (in Burmese). 10 February 2019.
4. Jim Pollard (10 February 2018). "The right to remember Myanmar's last king". Asia Times.
5. Zuzakar Kalaung (2 November 2017). "We Were Kings: Burma's lost royal family". The Myanmar Times.
6. "သီပေါမင်းနဲ့ စုဖုရားလတ်တို့ရဲ့ နောက်ဆုံးမြေးတော် တော်ဘုရား ကွယ်လွန်" (in Burmese). Duwun. 12 January 2019.

External links

• A rare meeting with the last of Burma's royals