Konbaung dynasty

History

Establishment

The dynasty was founded by a village chief, who later became known as Alaungpaya, in 1752 to challenge the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom which had just toppled the Taungoo dynasty. By 1759, Alaungpaya's forces had reunited all of Burma (and Manipur) and driven out the French and the British who had provided arms to Hanthawaddy.

Alaungpaya's second son, Hsinbyushin, came to the throne after a short reign by his elder brother, Naungdawgyi (1760–1763). He continued his father's expansionist policy and finally took Ayutthaya in 1767, after seven years of fighting.

Relations with Siam

In 1760, Burma began a series of wars with Siam that would last well into the middle of the 19th century. By 1770, Alaungpaya's heirs had destroyed Ayutthaya (1765–1767), subdued much of Luang Phrabang and Vientiane (both 1765) and defeated four invasions by Qing China (1765–1769). With the Burmese preoccupied for another two decades by another impending invasion by the Chinese, Siam reunified by 1771, and went on to capture Lan Na by 1776. The Burmese made additional invasions to the newly reconstituted Siam in 1785 and 1786 but failed. Burma and Siam went to war until 1855 but after decades of war, the two countries exchanged Tenasserim (to Burma) and Lan Na (to Siam).

Relations with China

In the defence of its realm, the dynasty fought four wars successfully against the Qing dynasty of China, which saw the threat of the expansion of Burmese power in the East. In 1770, despite his victory over the Chinese armies, King Hsinbyushin sued for peace with China and concluded a treaty to maintain bilateral trade with the Middle Kingdom, which was very important for the dynasty at that time. The Qing dynasty then opened up its markets and restored trading with Burma in 1788 after reconciliation.

Relations with Vietnam

In 1823, Burmese emissaries led by George Gibson, who was the son of an English mercenary, arrived in the Vietnamese city of Saigon. The Burmese king Bagyidaw was very keen to conquer Siam and hoped Vietnam might be a useful ally. Vietnam had then just annexed Cambodia. The Vietnamese emperor was Minh Mạng, who had just taken the throne after the death of his father, Gia Long (the founder of the Nguyen dynasty). A commercial delegation from Vietnam has recently been in Burma, eager to expand the trade in birds nests (tổ yến). Bagyidaw's interest in sending a return mission, however, was to secure a military alliance.

Western expansion, First and Second Anglo-Burmese Wars

Faced with a powerful China and a resurgent Siam in the east, the Konbaung dynasty had ambitions to expand the Konbaung Empire westwards.

Bodawpaya acquired the western kingdoms of Arakan (1784), Manipur (1814), and Assam (1817), leading to a long, ill-defined border with British India. The Konbaung court had set its sights on potentially conquering British Bengal by the outbreak of the First Anglo-Burmese War.

Europeans began to set up trading posts in the Irrawaddy delta region during this period. Konbaung tried to maintain its independence by balancing between the French and the British. In the end, it failed, the British severed diplomatic relations in 1811, and the dynasty fought and lost three wars against the British Empire, culminating in the total annexation of Burma by the British.

The British defeated the Burmese in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826) after huge losses on both sides, both in terms of manpower and financial assets. Burma had to cede Arakan, Manipur, Assam and Tenasserim, and pay a large indemnity of one million pounds.

In 1837, King Bagyidaw's brother, Tharrawaddy, seized the throne, put Bagyidaw under house arrest and executed the chief queen Me Nu and her brother. Tharrawaddy made no attempt to improve relations with Britain.

His son Pagan, who became king in 1846, executed thousands—some sources say as many as 6,000—of his wealthier and more influential subjects on trumped-up charges. During his reign, relations with the British became increasingly strained. In 1852, the Second Anglo-Burmese War broke out. Pagan was succeeded by his younger brother, the progressive Mindon.

Realising the need to modernise, the Konbaung rulers tried to enact various reforms with limited success. King Mindon with his able brother Crown Prince Kanaung established state-owned factories to produce modern weaponry and goods; in the end, these factories proved more costly than effective in staving off foreign invasion and conquest.

Third Anglo-Burmese War and dethronement of the monarchy

He died before he could name a successor, and Thibaw, a lesser prince, was manoeuvred onto the throne by Hsinbyumashin, one of Mindon's queens, together with her daughter, Supayalat. (Rudyard Kipling mentions her as Thibaw's queen, and borrows her name, in his poem "Mandalay") The new King Thibaw proceeded, under Supayalat's direction, to massacre all likely contenders to the throne. This massacre was conducted by the queen.

The dynasty came to an end in 1885 with the forced abdication and exile of the king and the royal family to India. The British, alarmed by the consolidation of French Indochina, annexed the remainder of the country in the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885. The annexation was announced in the British parliament as a New Year gift to Queen Victoria on 1 January 1886.

Although the dynasty had conquered vast tracts of territory, its direct power was limited to its capital and the fertile plains of the Irrawaddy River valley. The Konbaung rulers enacted harsh levies and had a difficult time fighting internal rebellions. At various times, the Shan states paid tribute to the Konbaung dynasty, but unlike the Mon lands, they were never directly controlled by the Burmese.

Government

The Konbaung dynasty was an absolute monarchy. As in the rest of Southeast Asia, the traditional concept of kingship aspired to the Chakravartin (Universal Monarchs) creating their own mandala or field of power within the Jambudipa universe, along with the possession of the white elephant which allowed them to assume the title Hsinbyushin or Hsinbyumyashin (Lord of the White Elephants), played a significant role in their endeavours. Of more earthly importance was the historical threat of periodic raids and aiding of internal rebellions as well as invasion and imposition of overlordship from the neighbouring kingdoms of the Mon, Tai Shans and Manipuris.

Administrative divisions

The kingdom was divided into provinces called myo (မြို့). These provinces were administered by Governors called Myosa (မြို့စား), who were members of the royal family or the highest-ranking officials of the Hluttaw. They collected revenue for the royal government, payable to the Royal Treasury in fixed instalments and retained whatever was left over. Each provinces was subdivided into towns and municipalities. Towns also called myo (မြို့), which were capitals of provinces. Towns were administered by Town Headman called Myo thugyi (မြို့သူကြီး) or Town administrator called Myo Ok (မြို့အုပ်). Municipalities called taik (တိုက်), which contained collections of villages called ywa (ရွာ). Municipalities were administered by Municipal Headman called Taik thugyi (တိုက်သူကြီး) and villages were administered by Village Headman called Ywa thugyi (ရွာသူကြီး).

The kingdom's peripheral coastal provinces, Arakan, Pegu, Martaban and Tavoy were administered by a Viceroy called a Myowun (မြို့ဝန်), who was appointed by the king and possessed civil, judicial, fiscal and military powers. Provincial councils (myoyon) consisted of myo saye (မြို့စာရေး) (town scribes), nakhandaw (နာခံတော်)(receivers of royal orders), sitke (စစ်ကဲ) (chiefs of war), htaunghmu (ထောင်မှူး) (jailer), ayatgaung (အရံခေါင်း) (head of the quarter), and dagahmu (တံခါးမှူး) (warden of the gates). The Viceroy of Pegu was assisted by several additional officials, including an akhunwun (အခွန်ဝန်) (revenue officer), akaukwun (အကောက်ဝန်) (customs collector), and a yewun (ရေဝန်) (conservator of port).

The outlying tributary fiefdoms on the edges of the kingdom were autonomous in practice and nominally administered by the king. These included the Shan, Palaung, Kachin and Manipuri principalities. The tributary princes of these fiefdoms regularly pledged allegiance and offered tribute to the Konbaung kings (through rituals called gadaw pwedaw) (ကန်တော့ပွဲ) and were accorded with royal privileges and designated sawbwa (စော်ဘွား) (from Shan saopha, 'lord of the sky') In particular, the families of Shan sawbwas regularly intermarried into Burmese aristocracy and had close contact with the Konbaung court.

Royal agencies

The government was centrally administered by several advisory royal agencies, following a pattern established during the Taungoo dynasty.

The Hluttaw (လွှတ်တော်, lit. "place of royal release," cf. Council of State) held legislative, ministerial and judicial functions, administering the royal government as delegated by the king. Sessions at the Hluttaw were held for six hours daily, from 6 to 9 a.m., and from noon to 3 p.m. Listed by rank, the Hluttaw was composed of:

Head of the Council – the king, his heir apparent, or a high-ranking prince who presided over the Hluttaw as its nominal head.

Wunshindaw (ဝန်ရှင်တော်, Prime Minister) – served as the Chief Minister of the Hluttaw, an office established during the reign of Mindon Min and most notably served by the Kinwun Mingyi U Kaung

Four Wungyi (ဝန်ကြီး, Minister) – jointly administered the Hluttaw's administrative portfolio and shared joint responsibility for the kingdom's administration.

Four Wundauk (ဝန်ထောက်, Deputy Minister) – served as deputies to the Wungyi

Myinzugyi Wun (မြင်းဇူးကြီးဝန်, lit. "Minister of the Cavalry Regiments") – as the highest regular army position, oversaw the Tatmadaw.

Athi Wun (အသည်ဝန်, lit. "Minister of the Athi") – responsible for allocating corvée labour resources and mobilisation of taxpaying commoners, called athi, during wartime

The Byedaik (ဗြဲတိုက်, lit. "Bachelor Chambers," with Bye stemming from Mon blai (Mon: ဗ္ကဲာ, "bachelor") served as the Privy Council by handling the court's internal affairs and also served as an interlocutor between the king and other royal agencies. The Byedaik consisted of:

Eight Atwinwun (အတွင်းဝန်, cf. 'Ministers of the Interior') – communicated business affairs of the Hluttaw to the king, administered internal transactions of general affairs relating to the royal court.

Royal service

Each royal agency included a large retinue of middle and low level officials responsible for day-to-day affairs. These included the:

Nakhandaw (နားခံတော်) – charged with conveying communications to and from the King and Hluttaw. Also served as intermediary between royal agencies and between king and ministers. Collected, sorted, interpreted reports, read proclamations at official gatherings, transmitted orders to provincial councils.

Sayedawgyi (စာရေးတော်ကြီး; great chief clerks) – performed executive level work and preliminary investigations for trials

Saye (စာရေး; clerks)

Ameindawgyi (အမိန့်တော်ကြီး; writers of great orders) – prepared and issued royal orders after necessary preliminary steps had been taken.

Athonsaye (အသုံးစာရေး; clerks of works) – oversaw construction and repairs of all public buildings

Ahmadawye (အမှတ်တော်ကြီး; recorders of orders) – drafted orders and letters to be issued by Hluttaw

Awayyauk (အဝေးရောက်; distant arrivals) – received and read letters coming from distance before submission to ministers

Thandawgan (သံတော်ခံ) – ceremonial officers who received letters on behalf of the king

and 3 classes of ceremonial officers:

Letsaungsaye (clerks of presents) – read lists of offerings made to the King at royal functions

Yonzaw (master of ceremonies) – arranged royal functions and audiences of the King

Royal court

Konbaung society was centred on the king, who took many wives and fathered numerous children, creating a huge extended royal family which formed the power base of the dynasty and competed for influence at the royal court. It also posed problems of succession at the same time, often resulting in royal massacres.

The Lawka Byuha Kyan (လောကဗျူဟာကျမ်း), also known as the Inyon Sadan (အင်းယုံစာတန်း), is the earliest extant work on Burmese court protocols and customs. The work was written by Inyon Wungyi Thiri Uzana, also known as the Inyon Ywaza, during the reign of Alaungpaya, the founder of the Konbaung dynasty.

Royal court life in the Konbaung dynasty consisted of both codified rituals and ceremonies and those that were innovated with the progression of the dynasty. Many ceremonies were composed of Hindu ideas localised and adapted to existing traditions, both Burmese and Buddhist in origin. These rituals were also used to legitimise the rule of Burmese kings, as the Konbaung monarchs claimed descent from Maha Sammata through the Sakyan clan (of which Gotama Buddha was a member) and the House of Vijaya. Life in the royal court was closely regulated. Eunuchs (မိန်းမဆိုး) oversaw the ladies of the royal household and apartments. Inferior queens and concubines could not reside in the main palace buildings.

Brahmins, generally known as ponna (ပုဏ္ဏား) in Burmese, served as specialists for ritual ceremonies, astrology, and devotional rites to Hindu deities at the Konbaung court. They played an essential role in king-making rituals, consecration and ablution ceremonies called abhiseka (ဗိဿိတ်). Court Brahmins (ပုရောဟိတ်, parohita) were well embedded in daily life at the court, advising and consulting the king on various matters. A social hierarchy among the Brahmins determined their respective duties and functions. Astrologer Brahmins called huya (ဟူးရား) were responsible for determining astrological calculations, such as determining the auspicious moment for the foundation of a new capital, a new palace, pagoda, or assumption of the royal residence, announcing an appointment, leaving a place, visiting a pagoda or starting a military campaign. They also established the religious calendar, prepared the almanac (သင်္ကြန်စာ), calculated upcoming solar and lunar eclipses, identified major festival days based on the lunar cycle, and communicated auspicious times and dates. A special group of Brahmins who performed abhiseka rituals were also selected as pyinnya shi (ပညာရှိ), appointed royal counselors.

Royal rituals

Lavish affairs were also organised around the life ceremonies of royal family members. Brahmins presided over many of these auspicious ceremonies, including the construction of a new royal capital; consecration of the new palace, the royal ploughing ceremony; the naming, first rice feeding and cradling ceremonies; the abhiseka head anointing rituals, and the King's participation in Burmese New Year (Thingyan) celebrations. During Thingyan, a group of 8 Brahmins sprinkled water blessed by a group of 8 Buddhist monks, throughout the palace grounds, at the Hluttaw, various courts, the major city gates, and the 4 corners of the capital. The king attended many of the ceremonies involving royal family members, from cradling ceremonies (ပုခက်မင်္ဂလာ) to ear-boring ceremonies, from marriages to funerals.

Specific buildings in the royal palace served as the venue for various life ceremonies. For instance, the Great Audience Hall was where young princes underwent the shinbyu coming-of-age ceremony and were ordained as monk novices. This was also the venue where young princes ceremonially had their hair tied in a topknot (သျှောင်ထုံး). Elaborate Burmese New Year feasts took place at the Hmannandawgyi (Palace of Mirrors): on the third day of the New Year, the king and chief queen partook in Thingyan rice, cooked rice dipped in cold perfumed water, while seated on their throne. Musical and dramatic performances and other feasts were also held in that complex.

The most significant court functions of a king's reign were the abhiseka or consecratory rituals, held at various times throughout a king's reign, to reinforce his place as the patron of religion (Sasana) and righteousness. Abhiseka rituals all involved the pouring of water from a conch on the candidate's (usually the king's) head, instructing him what to do or not to do for the love of his people and warning him that if he failed to oblige, he might suffer certain miseries. Ablution rituals were the responsibility of a group of 8 elite Brahmins uniquely qualified to perform the ritual. They were to remain chaste before the ceremony. Another group of Brahmins was responsible for the consecration of the Crown Prince.

There were 14 types of abhiseka ceremonies in total:

Rājabhiseka (ရာဇဘိသိက်) – coronation of the king

Muddhabhiseka (မုဒ္ဓဘိသိက်) – formal vow by the king to work for the propagation of the Sasana (the Buddha's teachings); held five years after accession

Socioeconomic governance

Social classes

During the Konbaung dynasty, Burmese society was highly stratified. Loosely modelled on the four Hindu varnas, Konbaung society was divided into four general social classes (အမျိုးလေးပါး) by descent:

Rulers (မင်းမျိုး) or Khattiya (ခတ္တိယ)

Ritualists (ပုဏ္ဏားမျိုး) or Brahmana (ဗြာဟ္မဏ)

Merchants (သူဌေးမျိုး) or Vessa (ဝေဿ)

Commoners (ဆင်းရဲသားမျိုး) or Tudda (သုဒ္ဒ)

Society also distinguished between the free and slaves (ကျွန်မျိုး), who were indebted persons or prisoners of war (including those brought back from military campaigns in Arakan, Ayuthaya, and Manipur), but could belong to one of the four classes. There was also distinction between taxpayers and non-taxpayers. Tax-paying commoners were called athi (အသည်), whereas non-taxpaying individuals, usually affiliated to the royal court or under government service, were called ahmuhtan (အမှုထမ်း).

Outside of hereditary positions, there were two primary paths to influence: joining the military (မင်းမှုထမ်း) and joining the Buddhist Sangha in the monasteries.

Sumptuary laws

Sumptuary laws called yazagaing dictated life and consumption for Burmese subjects in the Konbaung kingdom, everything from the style of one's house to clothing suitable to one's social standing from regulations concerning funerary ceremonies and the coffin to be used to usage of various speech forms based on rank and social status. In particular, sumptuary laws in the royal capital were exceedingly strict and the most elaborate in character.

For instance, sumptuary laws forbade ordinary Burmese subjects to build houses of stone or brick and dictated the number of tiers on the ornamental spired roof (called pyatthat) allowed above one's residence—the royal palace's Great Audience Hall and the 4 main gates of the royal capital, as well as monasteries, were allowed 9 tiers while those of the most powerful tributary princes (sawbwa) were permitted 7, at most.

Sumptuary laws ordained 5 types of funerals and rites accorded to each: the king, royal family members, holders of ministerial offices, merchants and those who possessed titles, and peasants (who received no rites at death).

Sumptuary regulations regarding dress and ornamentation were carefully observed. Designs with the peacock insignia were strictly reserved for the royal family and long-tailed hip-length jackets (ထိုင်မသိမ်းအင်္ကျီ) and surcoats were reserved for officials. Velvet sandals (ကတ္တီပါဖိနပ်) were worn exclusively by royals. Gold anklets were worn only by the royal children. Silk cloth, brocaded with gold and silver flowers and animal figures were only permitted to be worn by members of the royal family and ministers' wives. Adornment with jewels and precious stones was similarly regulated. Usage of hinthapada (ဟင်္သပဒါး), a vermilion dye made from cinnabar was regulated.

Demography

Throughout the Konbaung dynasty, cultural integration continued. For the first time in history, the Burmese language and culture came to predominate the entire Irrawaddy valley, with the Mon language and ethnicity completely eclipsed by 1830. The nearer Shan principalities adopted more lowland norms.

Captives from various military campaigns in their hundreds and thousands were brought back to the kingdom and resettled as hereditary servants to royalty and nobility or dedicated to pagodas and temples; these captives added new knowledge and skills to Burmese society and enriched Burmese culture. They were encouraged to marry into the host community thus enriching the gene pool as well. Captives from Manipur formed the cavalry called Kathè myindat (Cassay Horse) and also Kathè a hmyauk tat (Cassay Artillery) in the royal Burmese army. Even captured French soldiers, led by Chevalier Milard, were forced into the Burmese army. The incorporated French troops with their guns and muskets played a key role in the later battles between the Burmese and the Mons. They became an elite corps, which was to play a role in the Burmese battles against the Siamese (attacks and capture of Ayutthaya from 1760 to 1765) and the Manchus (battles against the Chinese armies of the Qianlong Emperor from 1766 to 1769). Muslim eunuchs from Arakan also served in the Konbaung court.

A small community of foreign scholars, missionaries and merchants also lived in Konbaung society. Besides mercenaries and adventurers who had offered their services since the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, a few Europeans served as ladies-in-waiting to the last queen Supayalat in Mandalay, a missionary established a school attended by Mindon's several sons including the last king Thibaw, and an Armenian had served as a king's minister at Amarapura.

Among the most visible non-Burmans of the royal court were Brahmins. They typically originated from one of four locales:

Manipur – acquired with the conquest of Manipur; perhaps from Bengal, since Manipur was Hinduised by Bengali Brahmins in the 1700s

Arakan – acquired with the conquest of Arakan in 1785 by King Bodawpaya's son, Thado Minsaw

Literature and arts

The evolution and growth of Burmese literature and theatre continued, aided by an extremely high adult male literacy rate for the era (half of all males and 5% of females). Foreign observers such as Michael Symes remarked on widespread literacy among commoners, from peasants to watermen.

The Siamese captives carried off from Ayutthaya as part of the Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) went on to have an outsize influence on traditional Burmese theatre and dance. In 1789, a Burmese royal commission consisting of Princes and Ministers was charged with translating Siamese and Javanese dramas from Thai to Burmese. With the help of Siamese artists captured from Ayutthaya in 1767, the commission adapted two important epics from Thai to Burmese: the Siamese Ramayana and the Enao, the Siamese version of Javanese Panji tales into Burmese Yama Zattaw and Enaung Zattaw. One classical Siamese dance, called Yodaya Aka (lit. Ayutthaya-style dance) is considered one of the most delicate of all traditional Burmese dances.

During the Konbaung period, the techniques of European painting like linear perspective, chiaroscuro and sfumato became more established amongst Burmese painting style. Temple paintings from this period utilized techniques such as by casting shadows and distance haze on traditional Burmese styles. The Konbaung period also developed parabaik folding-book manuscripts styles that recorded court and royal activities by painting on white parabaik.

In the earlier part of the dynasty, between 1789 and 1853, the Amarapura style of Buddha image statuary art developed. Artisans used a unique style using wood gild with gold leaf and red lacquer. The rounder faced image of the Buddha from this period may have been influenced by the capture of the Mahamuni Image from Arakan. After Mindon Min moved the capital to Mandalay, a new Mandalay style of Buddha images developed, depicting a new curly-haired Buddha image and using alabaster and bronze as materials. This later style would be retained through the British colonial period.

Architecture

Burmese dynasties had a long history of building regularly planned cities along the Irawaddy valley between the 14th and 19th centuries. Town planning in pre-modern Burma reached its climax during the Konbaung period with cities such as Mandalay. Alaungpaya directed many town planning initiatives. He built many small fortified towns with major defences. One of these, Rangoon, was founded in 1755 as a fortress and sea harbor. The city had an irregular plan with stockades made of teak logs on a ground rampart. Rangoon had six city gates with each gate flanked by massive brick towers with typical merlons with cross-shaped embrasures. The stupa of Shwedagon, Sule and Botataung were located outside the city walls. The city had main roads paved with bricks and drains along the sides.

This period also saw a proliferation of stupas and temples with developments in stucco techniques. Wooden monasteries of this period intricately decorated with wood carvings of the Jataka Tales, are one of the more prominent, distinctive examples of traditional Burmese architecture that survive to the present day.

Religion

Monastic and lay elites around the Konbaung kings, particularly from Bodawpaya's reign, launched a major reformation of Burmese intellectual life and monastic organisation and practice known as the Sudhamma Reformation. It led to, amongst other things, Burma's first proper state histories. The Buddhist religion was often the center of their political ideologies, with the monarch presenting itself as the Dhammaraja, a righteous protector of the Dharma, as royal legitimacy wasn't just rooted in military conquests and dynasty successors, but also in the patronage of the Buddhist institutions.

Rulers

Note: Naungdawgyi was the eldest brother of Hsinbyushin and Bodawpaya, who was the grandfather of Bagyidaw, who was Mindon's elder uncle. They were known by these names to posterity, although the formal titles at their coronation by custom ran to some length in Pali; Mintayagyi paya (Lord Great King) was the equivalent of Your/His Majesty whereas Hpondawgyi paya (Lord Great Glory) would be used by the royal family.

Pretenders

After the abolition of the monarchy, the title of Royal Householder of the Konbaung dynasty nominally passed to Myat Phaya Lat, Thibaw's second daughter, as the King's eldest daughter had renounced her royal titles to be with an Indian commoner.

Thibaw's third daughter Myat Phaya Galay returned to Burma and sought the return of the throne from the British in the 1920s. Her eldest son Taw Phaya Gyi was taken by Imperial Japan during the Second World War for his potential as a puppet king. Japan's efforts failed due to Taw Phaya Gyi's distaste of the Japanese and his assassination in 1948 by Communist insurgents.

After the death of Myat Phaya Lat, her grandson-in-law Taw Phaya became the nominal Royal Householder. Taw Phaya was the son of Myat Phaya Galay, the brother of Taw Phaya Gyi and the husband of Myat Phaya Lat's granddaughter Hteik Su Gyi Phaya.

Upon Taw Phaya's death in 2019, it is unclear who serves as the Royal Householder. Soe Win, the eldest son of Taw Phaya Gyi is assumed to be the Royal Householder as there is little public information about Taw Phaya's children.