Thibaw Min: Difference between revisions

[[File:Thibaw Min 1885 crop.jpg|thumb|left|A photograph of King Thibaw, Queen Supayalat and her sister Princess Supayagyi (November 1885)]]

[[File:King Thibaw's State Barge on the Mandalay Moat.jpg|thumb|left|King Thibaw's Royal Barge on the [[Mandalay Palace]] moat in 1885.]]

 

==Exile and the fate of the Royal Family==

 

 

King Thibaw himself gave an account of the reasons for his overthrow in a testimonial he wrote from exile for ''Esoof [[Cheroot]]s'' (a brand of Indian [[cigarettes]]) and quoted by C. L. Keeton in his book ''King Thebaw and the Ecological Rape of Burma'':

<blockquote>''My late father, the Royal [[Mindon Min]], the golden-footed lord of the white elephant, master of a thousand gold umbrellas, owner of the Royal peacocks, lord of the sea and of the world, whose face was like the sun, always smoked the Esoof cheroot while meditating on his treatment of the bull-faced, earthswallowing English. Had I done the same I should never have lost my throne, but I used the [[opium]]-drugged cheroots from [[Manila]] and the trash which was sent to me from [[San Francisco]], and I fell.''</blockquote>

 

{{quote|''The collector's records say that when [[Phaya]] died, she was such a destitute that the locals of the village around collected money under the leadership of the collectorate for her funeral. Phaya left behind the daughter she had borne to Gopal, who had died earlier. This daughter, named Tu Tu, was brought up in poverty and not being educated, forgot all about her royal heritage except having one sorry looking poster painting of her mother in her home for veneration among the many household gods...Without money or education, Tu Tu married a local mechanic and had at least six or seven children, all of whom became more and more Indian in religion and culture as well as appearance. Tu Tu, for whom Burmese is a forgotten language, still lives in Ratnagiri as an old woman and speaks fluent Marathi with a rural Maharashtrian accent. She used to sell paper flowers to make a little money for her family in the days gone by.|[[The Hindustan Times]], 16 September 1995|color=silver|<ref>[http://www.hvk.org/hvk/articles/1098/0013.html HVK Archives:Pauper Princess]</ref>}}