Descendants of the last king of Myanmar help a nation rediscover its royal heritage
More than a century after the British expelled Myanmar’s last king, descendants held an emotional ceremony in Mandalay’s Golden Palace on Tuesday in a watershed moment for a country rediscovering its royal heritage after decades of colonialism and military rule.
The British tried to keep us away from the common people. But ... today the common people will pay respects to royalty
The last scions of the Konbaung dynasty gathered in the former seat of royal power as monks chanted prayers to mark the end of their family’s reign, the first time they have publicly marked King Thibaw’s exile to India 130 years ago inside the palace.
Among them were the only surviving grandchildren of the last monarch – Princess Hteik Su Phaya Gyi and Prince Taw Phaya, now both in their 90s.
“When we were young we used to come and play here,” a beaming Taw Phaya, dressed in traditional maroon sarong and cream jacket, told AFP inside the audience hall where his grandfather once ruled from on high. “The British tried to keep us away from the common people. But... today the common people will pay respects to royalty,” he added.
Thibaw was only on the throne for seven years before British troops swept into Mandalay on November 28, 1885 and ordered his family to leave the country the very next day.
The sight of the monarch and his heavily pregnant wife being paraded through the streets on old bullock carts as his subjects wept and prostrated themselves was a humiliation that has been seared on Myanmar’s collective memory ever since.
Fearing the royal family would become a focus for dissent, the British closed off the palace to the public and the doors remained shut after independence in 1948.
