Burma / Myanmar: Queen Supayalat in the royal palace at Mandalay c.1880

Supayalat (13 December 1859 – 24 November 1925) was the last queen of Burma who reigned in Mandalay (1878–1885), born to King Mindon Min and Queen Alenandaw. 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 awaited. Thibaw was 27 and Supayalat 26.

After years of exile in India, Supayalat returned to Rangoon in 1919. She died six years later, in 1925 - shortly before her 66th birthday. Although the colonial government declared the day of her funeral a national holiday, the royal family's request for her to be buried in Mandalay was also refused. Her funeral was, however, held with pomp and ceremony as befitted a Burmese queen.

Supayalat lies buried at the foot of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Kandawmin Gardens between the tombs of Aung San Suu Kyi's mother Khin Kyi and the former UN Secretary General U Thant. Pictures From History

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