Suphankanlaya

Suphankanlaya (Thai: สุพรรณกัลยา, Suvarṇakalyā; Burmese: ဗြဣန္ဒဒေဝီ) was a 16th-century Siamese princess who was a queen consort of King Bayinnaung of Burma. There are very few historical records of her life, but legends about her are widespread in Thailand. Many Thais revere her as a national heroine or even as a popular deity.

Suphankanlaya
Queen consort of Burma
Princess of Ayutthaya
Statue of Suphankanlaya at Wat Chan Tawan-ok, Phitsanulok Province
Queen consort of Burma
Tenure22 January 1567 – 10 October 1581
Bornin or before 1554
Phitsanulok
Died?
SpouseBayinnaung
IssueMin A-Htwe
HouseSukhothai Dynasty
FatherMaha Thammarachathirat
MotherWisutkasat
ReligionTheravada Buddhism

Biography and legend

She was the daughter of Maha Thammaracha, viceroy of Phitsanulok and later King of Ayutthaya and his wife Wisutkasat; elder sister of the princes Naresuan and Ekathotsarot who later both became kings of Ayutthaya, too. On her maternal side she was a granddaughter of King Chakkraphat and Queen Suriyothai. In 1564, her father became a vassal of King Bayinnaung of Pegu in Burma. Her brothers were taken to the Peguan court to serve as pages and guarantee for the loyalty of their father, as was usual at the time.

Thai narrative

According to the common narrative in Thailand, in 1571, Suphankanlaya agreed to marry Bayinnaung to become one of his minor wives. This bond, too, should consolidate her father's allegiance to the Burmese king. Her brothers, instead, could return home. She had two children with Bayinnaung. After the king's death in 1581, she became the wife of his son and successor Nanda. In 1584, her father revolted against Nanda. He revoked the oath of allegiance to the Burmese king and it came to war. After her father's death in 1590, her brother Naresuan carried on the fight. In 1593, Naresuan defeated and killed Nanda's son Mingyi Swa in a legendary duel on elephants' backs. When Nanda learnt of his son's death, according to the common narrative in Thailand, he became enraged and stroke Suphankanlaya, who was eight months pregnant with his child, dead.[1]

Burmese records

The Burmese chronicles mention her only in passing. According to the records, her title was Bya Eindra Dewi (ဗြဣန္ဒဒေဝီ, [pʰjá ʔèiɴdɹà dèwì])[note 1] and her personal name was Amyoyon (အမျိုးရုံ, [ʔə mjó jòʊɴ]). She was presented to the king at the Pegu court on 22 January 1567.[2] They had a daughter named Min A-Htwe (မင်းအထွေး, [mɪ́ɴ ʔə tʰwé]).[3] Moreover, the chronicles make no mention of her subsequent marriage to Nanda. Her name does not appear in the chronicles' list of queens, junior queens or concubines of Nanda.[4]

In official accounts of the Siamese and Burmese history, Suphankanlaya is only mentioned in passing, if at all. However, her story entered the Thai national mythology. Legends of her have often been depicted in popular culture. During and after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, she became part of the "pantheon" of Thai national deities. A businesswoman first claimed that Suphankanlaya had saved her from bankruptcy. She then asked a historian to research the chronicles for accounts of the princess and a successful romantic novelist to popularise Suphankanlaya's story in an easy-to-read way. The historian insisted that historic depictions of the princess are very sparse and the story of her gruesome death rather legend than historically traceable. This did not stop large parts of the Thai public from developing a cult around the supposed heroine, worshipping her images and votive objects. As no authentic portrayal of the historic person has survived, the pictures were modelled on the look of former beauty queens.

Suphankanlaya, like her brother Naresuan, was established as a symbol of national assertiveness and self-sacrifice. In Thai folk beliefs, the spirits of murder victims are attributed exceptional powers.[5] The spread of Suphankanlaya worship has to be seen in the context of the rise of Thai nationalist (particularly anti-Burmese) sentiments at that time of economic crisis.[6] It is similar to the emergence of a cult around her grandmother Queen Suriyothai who is (ahistorically) venerated as a strong warrior heroine who sacrificed herself for the sovereignty of the nation, as well. The popular reverence for Suphankanlaya was seized on by Thai authorities and the military. The Third Army command in her presumed native city of Phitsanulok was the first to erect a monument to her and commissioned a biography in 1998, in which the alleged cruelty of her Burmese husband was emphasised.[7] In 2004, a film was made of her legend.

Notes
  1. Modern Burmese pronunciation given here. The name "ဗြဣန္ဒဒေဝီ" is an archaic Mon language-derived Burmese version of Thai "Phra Intha Thewi" (Pali: "Vara Inda Devī"; Sanskrit: "Vara Indra Devī"). Per (Pan Hla 2004: 176), the spelling ဣန္ဒ is of Mon origin, and means Sakra (Inda/Indra), the ruler of the Tāvatiṃsa Heaven in Buddhist cosmology. Her title means Her Highness Royal Queen Consort of Sakra, and may be translated as "အိန္ဒြာဒေဝီ မိဖုရား" (Eindra Dewi Mibaya, [ʔèiɴdɹà dèwì mḭbəjá]) in modern Burmese.

References
  1. Taylor (2001), History, Simulacrum and the real, p. 6
  2. (Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 296): 13th waning of Tabodwe 928 ME = 22 January 1567
  3. Hmannan Vol. 3 2003: 72
  4. Maha Yazawin Vol. 3 2006: 103
  5. Pasuk Phongpaichit; Chris Baker (2000), Thailand's Crisis, Silkworm Books, pp. 175–176
  6. Chris Baker; Pasuk Phongpaichit (2000), A History of Thailand (Second ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 262
  7. Maung Aung Myoe (2002), Neither Friend Nor Foe: Myanmar's Relations with Thailand Since 1988, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University, p. 146

Literature
  • Kala, U (1724). Maha Yazawin (in Burmese). Vol. 1–3 (2006, 4th printing ed.). Yangon: Ya-Pyei Publishing.
  • Pan Hla, Nai (1968). Razadarit Ayedawbon (in Burmese) (8th printing, 2004 ed.). Yangon: Armanthit Sarpay.
  • Royal Historical Commission of Burma (1832). Hmannan Yazawin (in Burmese). Vol. 1–3 (2003 ed.). Yangon: Ministry of Information, Myanmar.
  • Sunait, Chutintaranond (1999), พระสุพรรณกัลยา จากตำนานสู่หน้าประวัติศาสตร์ [Phra Suphankanlaya: Chak Tamnan su na Prawattisat / Princess Suphankalaya: From Legend to History]
  • Taylor, Jim (2001), "History, Simulacrum and the real: the making of a Thai princess", From Fact to Fiction: History of Thai-Myanmar Relations in Cultural Context, Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, pp. 1–16
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