Crisis of Kingship: Dynasticism and Revolt in Burma, 1837–1852*

Oliver B. Pollak

doi:10.1017/S0022463400015009

Crisis of Kingship: Dynasticism and Revolt in Burma, 1837–1852*

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 April 2011

Oliver B. Pollak

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Oliver B. Pollak: Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He holds M.A. and Ph.D degrees from UCLA, where he was a Visiting Professor in 1974. He has published articles on Rhodesian and Burmese history, which form part of his research interest in European imperialism in the Afro-Asian world.

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One of the most obscure periods in modern Burmese history comprises the reigns of King Tharrawaddy (1837–1846) and his eldest son, Pagan Min (1846–1852). Historians have relied, to varying degrees, on Colonel Henry Yule's unsympathetic and inaccurate retelling of court gossip which portrays the two monarchs as bestial lunatics who murdered and plundered at will. This assessment is as exaggerated as it is simplified and ignores the very real structural problems the Burmese nation experienced between the first and second Anglo-Burmese Wars.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , September 1976 , pp. 187 - 196

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022463400015009 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1976

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^{page 187 note 1} Yule, Henry, Narrative of the Mission to the Court of Ava in 1855 (Calcutta, 1857), pp. 222–230Google Scholar; Cady, J.F., A History of Modern Burma (Ithaca, N.Y., 1958), pp. 79–80Google Scholar; Foucar, E.V.C., Mandalay the Golden (London, 1963), p. 20Google Scholar; Hall, D.G.E., Burma (London, 1960), pp. 109–110Google Scholar, and The Dalhousie-Phayre Correspondence, 1852–1856 (London, 1932), pp. xvi–xviiGoogle Scholar; Woodman, D., The Making of Burma (London, 1962), pp. 120–121Google Scholar; and Aung, Maung Htin, A History of Burma (New York, 1967), p. 224Google Scholar. Unfortunately the Chronicles are exceptionally thin in the 1840's.

^{page 187 note 2} For analysis of colonial apologetics, see Sarkisyanz, E., “On the Changing Anglo-Saxon Image of Burma,” Asian Studies, IV (1966), 226–235Google Scholar, and Adas, M., “Imperialist Rhetoric and Modern Historiography: The Case of Lower Burma before and after the Conquest,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, III (1972), 175–192CrossRef Google Scholar. The “xenophobia” thesis emerges most clearly in the works of D. G. E. Hall while the “egalitarian” thesis is advocated by Maung Htin Aung.

^{page 187 note 3} Thaung, Ma, “Burmese Kingship in Theory and Practice during the Reign of Mindon,” Journal of the Burma Research Society, XLII (1959)Google Scholar; Heine-Geldern, R., “Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia,” Far Eastern Quarterly, XI (1942)Google Scholar; Phayre, A. P., History of Burma (London, 1883), p. 208Google Scholar; and Temple, R. C., “The Order of Succession in the Alompra Dynasty of Burma,” Indian Antiquary, XXI (1892), 287–293Google Scholar.

^{page 188 note 4} For conflicting treatment of court characters, see Gouger, H., Personal Narrative of Two Years Imprisonment in Burmah, 1824–26 (London, 1860), p. 45Google Scholar; Harvey, G. E., History of Burma (London, 1966), p. 301Google Scholar; Desai, W.S., “The Rebellion of Prince Tharrawaddy and the Deposition of Bagyidaw as King of Burma, 1837,” Journal of the Burma Research Society, XXV (1935), pp. 109–120Google Scholar; and Langham Carter, R.R., “Queen Me Nu and Her Family at Palangon,” Journal of the Burma Research Society, XIX (1929), 31–35Google Scholar.

^{page 188 note 5} Bayfield, G. T., Historical Review of the Political Relations Between the British Government and the Empire of Ava (Calcutta, 1835), p. llxxiiGoogle Scholar.

^{page 188 note 6} Hall, D.G.E., “Burney's Comments on the Court of Ava, 1832, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XX (1957), 308Google Scholar.

^{page 188 note 7} Tin, U (of Sagaing), Konbaungzet Chronicle (Mandalay, 3 vols, 1922–23), II, 496–7Google Scholar; Maulmain Chronicle, 15 Apr. 1837; and Burney to the Government of India, 3 Mar. 1837, in Desai, W.S., History of the British Residency in Burma, 1826–1840 (Rangoon, 1939), p. 235Google Scholar.

^{page 188 note 8} Konbaungzet Chronicle, II, 501, and Burney to Government of India, 3 Mar. 1837, in Desai, Residency, pp. 253–8.

^{page 189 note 9} She later became King Mindon's Chief Queen.

^{page 189 note 10} Burney to Government of India, 12 Jul. 1837, in Desai, Residency, p. 299.

^{page 189 note 11} Maulmain Chronicle, 24 Jun, 2 and 9 Dec. 1837; and Bayfield's Journal, in Desai, Residency, Residency, p. 340.

^{page 189 note 12} He died a natural death preceding Tharrawaddy to the grave by one month.

^{page 190 note 13} Burney to Government of India, 12 Jul. 1837 and Bayfield's Journal, 30 Apr. 1838, in Desai, Residency, pp. 284, 335.

^{page 190 note 14} Brown to Blundell, 31 May 1840, India Secret Proceedings (Hereafter, ISP), India Office Archives, London. Many people in Burmese and British territory did not believe that Setya Min had been executed and this led to several risings with millenarian overtones on behalf of the Chakravartin monarch. See Sarkisyanz, E., “Messianic Folk-Buddhism as ideology of Peasant Revolts in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Burma,” Review of Religious Research, X (1968), 32–38CrossRef Google Scholar.

^{page 190 note 15} Burney to Government of India, 24 May 1837, in Desai, Residency, pp. 279, 286–7.

^{page 190 note 16} Benson's Journal, comments after gruelling 41/2-hour interview with Burmese ministers on 30 Nov. 1837, in Desai, Residency, p. 384.

^{page 191 note 17} Maulmain Chronicle, 22 May and 10 Jul. 1839; and McLeod to Prinsep, 2 May 1839, Prinsep Collection, D662/C, India Office Archives.

^{page 191 note 18} McLeod to?, extracts in Auckland to Hobhouse, 17 Jun, 1838, Broughton Papers, British Museum, Add. Mss 36473.

^{page 191 note 19} McLeod to Prinsep, 14 Dec. 1839 in dispatch of President in Council to Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, 10 Jun. 1840, India Office Archives.

^{page 191 note 20} Colvin to Bayfield, 27 Nov. 1837, Auckland Papers, British Museum, Add. Mss 37692. Colvin was Auckland's secretary.

^{page 191 note 21} Colvin to Blundell, 27 Nov 1837, Auckland Papers, Add. Mss 37692.

^{page 191 note 22} Instructions to McLeod, 2 May 1839, ISP/20.

^{page 191 note 23} Halstead to Captain of Childers, 27 Sep. 1841, ISP/63.

^{page 191 note 24} Blundell to Maddock, 27 Oct. 1841, ISP/65.

^{page 192 note 25} For various interpretations of why deterioration occurred, see: Yule, Narrative of the Mission, p. 228; Crisp to Maddock, 18 Mar. 1841, ISP/57; Maulmain Chronicle, 28 Apr. 1841 and Father Sangermano, A Description of the Burmese Empire (New York, 1966), p. 141Google Scholar, for cosmological theories.

^{page 192 note 26} Brown to Bayley, 12 Aug. 1840. ISP/43.

^{page 192 note 27} McLeod to Blundell, 6 Sep. 1842, ISP/86.

^{page 192 note 28} Spiers to Currie, 12 Apr. 1845, ISP/116; Statement by Gua Shway, 28 Apr. 1845, India Political and Foreign Proceedings (Hereafter IPF); and Carter, R.R. Langham, “Htaung Bo's Rebellion,” Journal of the Burma Research Society, XXVI (1936), 33–34Google Scholar.

^{page 192 note 29} Spiers to Currie, 4 Aug. 1845, IPF/25.

^{page 193 note 30} Spiers to Currie, 25 Aug. 1845, ISP/119.

^{page 193 note 31} Konbaungzet Chronicle, III, 46–49Google Scholar; Report by Capt. Spiers, 7 Sep. 1845, ISP/118.

^{page 193 note 32} Spiers to Currie, 16 Sep. 1845, ISP/119.

^{page 193 note 33} Konbaungzet Chronicle, III, 47Google Scholar; Spiers to McLeod, 26 Sep. and 14 Oct. 1845, and Spiers to Currie, 30 Sep. 1845, ISP/119.

^{page 193 note 34} Konbaungzet Chronicle, III, 49Google Scholar; Spiers to Currie, 18 Nov. 1845, ISP/119; McCullock to Bushby. 7 Nov. 1845, ISP/122; and Spiers to Currie, 2 and 9 Feb. 1846, ISP/123.

^{page 194 note 35} Konbaungzet Chronicle, III, 50Google Scholar. Postmaster and newswriter Brown reported that Tharrawaddy had died of cancer of the throat or tongue. Brown to Bushby, 16 Nov. 1846, IPF/53.

^{page 194 note 36} Tin, U (Pagan Wundauk) Myanma Min Okchopon Sudan (Mandalay, 5 vols, 1931–1933), II, 25, 75Google Scholar.

^{page 194 note 37} Spiers to Durand, 29 Oct. 1845 and Spiers to Currie, 9 Dec. 1845, ISP/122.

^{page 194 note 38} Spiers to Currie, 10 Oct. 1845 and Brown to Bushby, 15 Sep. 1846, ISP/119 and 126.

^{page 194 note 39} Konbaungzet, III, 86–9Google Scholar.

^{page 194 note 40} Brown to Melville, 28 Sep. 1849, IPF/57.

^{page 195 note 41} Konbaungzet Chronicle, III, 79–87Google Scholar; Maulmain Chronicle, 29 Nov. 1843; Crisp to Grey, 1 Jul. 1851, Crisp to Bogle, 7 Jul. 1851, IPF/41; and Crisp to Grey, 4 Aug. 1851, IPF/43.

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