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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2016

Nilanjana Sengupta
Affiliation:
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
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Summary

Queen Supaya–Lat

“And the queen was bloodthirsty. Then was she very different from the women of her nation?”

–Fielding-Hall

“…all this talk of defeat is the talk of the old man and cowards.”

–Ni Ni Myint

The young Queen Supaya-lat and King Thibaw lived within the walled citadel of Mandalay. Their fabled palace with its tinkling fountains and moats of floating water lilies could have with ease belonged to Scheherazade's tales. And within the charmed walls of the palace, life was very pleasant indeed – pink-cheeked handmaidens from the Shan state played hide and seek with the Queen, their pretty feet showing just a little from under the shimmering pink silk skirts. Burmese rubies glowed on their ear lobes and strings of pearls around their necks – against the dark teak of the palace walls they made a very fetching picture indeed.

Sometimes a bird from a foreign sky flew into the Queen's quarters and the Queen – no, no she did not kill the poor creature. Instead she soothed it, gave it some water to drink, placed perhaps a gold leaf on its beak. And her handmaidens laughed in merriment at their Queen's act of clemency, reminiscent of the young Prince Siddhartha's tenderness for the stricken swan:

“Sitting with knees crossed, as Lord Buddha sits–

And, soothing with a touch the wild thing's fright,

…And while the left hand held, the right hand drew

The cruel steel forth from the wound, and laid

Cool leaves and healing honey on the smart.

Yet all so little knew the boy of pain

That curiously into his wrist he pressed

The arrow's barb, and winced to feel it sting.

And turned with tears to soothe his bird again.”

But ominous clouds were darkening the horizons of this Eden. For it was said that the young Queen Supaya-lat was as ambitious and as strong willed as her mother, the Dowager Queen Hsinbyumya-shin, King Thibaw's stepmother and the Middle Palace Queen of his father, the late King Mindon. Like her mother she plotted and conspired to protect the sovereignty of her husband's throne and what she conceived to be the purity of the royal lineage.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Female Voice of Myanmar
Khin Myo Chit to Aung San Suu Kyi
, pp. 1 - 7
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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  • Introduction
  • Nilanjana Sengupta
  • Book: The Female Voice of Myanmar
  • Online publication: 05 January 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316342916.003
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  • Introduction
  • Nilanjana Sengupta
  • Book: The Female Voice of Myanmar
  • Online publication: 05 January 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316342916.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Nilanjana Sengupta
  • Book: The Female Voice of Myanmar
  • Online publication: 05 January 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316342916.003
Available formats
×