page_title: Supayalat
section_title: Exile
hierarchical_section_title: Supayalat / Exile
caption_attribution_description: English: Four Princess, daughters of King Thibaw (Myat Phaya Galay (fourth), Myat Phaya Gyi(first), Myat Phaya Lat(second), Myat Phaya(third))
context_page_description: Supayalat, also spelt Suphayalat, was the last queen of Burma who reigned in Mandalay, born to King Mindon Min and Queen of Alenandaw. The British corruption of her name was "Soup Plate". She was married to her half-brother, Thibaw, who became the last king of the Konbaung dynasty in 1878, upon Mindon Min's death. She is best known for engineering a massacre of 80 to 100 royal family members, to prevent potential rivals from usurping Thibaw's power, although she had always denied any knowledge of the plot, which may have been hatched by her mother together with some of the ministers, including the chancellor Kinwon Min Gyi U Kaung.
context_section_description: Their reign lasted just seven years when Thibaw Min was defeated in the Third Anglo-Burmese War and forced to abdicate by the British in 1885. On 25 November 1885 they were taken away in a covered carriage, leaving Mandalay Palace by the southern gate of the walled city along the streets lined by British soldiers and their wailing subjects, to the River Irrawaddy where a steamboat called Thuriya (Sun) awaited. Thibaw was 27 and Supayalat 26.
  Supayalat never lost her composure, and was said to have asked a British soldier by the wayside for a light to smoke a Burmese cheroot. She was pregnant and accompanied by her husband, their two daughters, her two sisters, and her mother; the rest of their party followed on foot. The troops had nicknamed her "Soup Plate", and in the commotion and haste that attended their abduction, some of the crown jewels disappeared including a large ruby called Nga Mauk that Colonel Sladen had insisted on being handed over for safekeeping.  Thibaw saw an opportunity in 1911 when King George V visited India, and wrote for the return of the Burmese crown jewels, but only received a reply that Col. Sladen had died in 1890. Nga Mauk was believed to have subsequently turned up as the largest ruby on the British crown; it was recognised by  Princess of Kyundaung in whose charge the ruby used to be.
  On 10 December 1885 the royal family, minus the queen mother and Supayagyi who were sent to Dawei, was taken to Madras where their third daughter was born, and in April the next year they were moved to Ratnagiri on the west coast where they could no longer look across the Bay of Bengal to the land they had been forced to leave. Supayalat gave birth to her fourth and youngest daughter in 1887; they were not given a proper residence commensurate with their status until 1911 when Thibaw Palace was built by the government. In 1914 the royal princesses had an ear-piercing ceremony (နားသွင်းမင်္ဂလာ nahtwin mingala) according to Burmese custom. Some of the family members, court officials and entertainers including the famous orchestra of Sein Beida and the harpist Deiwa Einda Maung Maung Gyi from Burma were permitted to attend the ceremony. Although Supayalat's first born was a boy he did not survive infancy, and she had also lost another daughter.
  The royal princesses were named as follows:
  Hteiksu Myat Phaya Gyi (1880–1947) married an Indian door guard at Thibaw Palace. She have only a daughter named Tu Tu.
  Hteiksu Myat Phaya Lat (1882–1956) married a Burmese courtier at Thibaw Palace; neither of these unions met with the royal parents' approval.
  Hteiksu Myat Phaya Aka Madras Supaya (1886–1962) returned to Burma with her mother, and married a grandson of Mindat Min, her great uncle and brother of King Mindon.
  Hteiksu Myat Phaya Galay (1887–1935), the youngest and brightest, was fluent in English and acted as the royal family's spokesperson airing their grievances in a document called Sadutta thamidaw ayeidawbon sadan (စတုတ္ထသမီးတော်အရေးတော်ပုံစာတမ်း The Fourth Royal Daughter Crisis Document); she was sent away by the colonial government to live in Moulmein where she spent the rest of her days.
caption: The four daughters of King Thibaw and Supayalat, Myat Phaya Galay, Myat Phaya Gyi, Myat Phaya Lat, Myat Phaya
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