Tabinshwehti (Burmese: တပင်ရွှေထီး, [dəbɪ̀ɰ̃ ʃwè tʰí]; 16 April 1516 – 30 April 1550) was king of Burma from 1530 to 1550, and the founder of the First Toungoo Empire. His military campaigns (1534–1549) created the largest kingdom in Burma since the fall of the Pagan Empire in 1287. His administratively fragile kingdom proved to be the impetus for the eventual reunification of the entire country by his successor and brother-in-law Bayinnaung.
Based out of their small landlocked principality in the Sittaung valley, Tabinshwehti and his deputy Bayinnaung began their military campaigns in 1534 against the Hanthawaddy kingdom, and had conquered the wealthier but disunited kingdom by 1541. He then leveraged the coastal kingdom's wealth, manpower and access to Portuguese mercenaries and firearms, and extended his rule to the ancient capital of Pagan (Bagan) in 1544. However, his attempts to build an East-West empire fell short in Arakan (1545–1547) and in Siam (1547–1549). He actively courted the support of ethnic Mons of Lower Burma, many of whom were appointed to the highest positions in his government and armed forces. His chief queen and chief primate were Mons. He moved the capital to Pegu (Bago). The king was assassinated on his 34th birthday on the orders of Smim Sawhtut, one of his close advisers. The kingdom he had built up fell apart right after his death, which Bayinnaung had to restore in the next two years.
His premature death has been called "one of the great turning points of mainland [Southeast Asia's] history". He is one of the most celebrated kings in Burmese history. The Tabinshwehti nat is one of the 37 nats (spirits) worshiped in Myanmar.
Tabinshwehti was born at Toungoo Palace to King Mingyi Nyo of Toungoo and his concubine Khin Oo on 16 April 1516. The 56-year-old king, who had desperately wanted a son, named the baby boy "Tabinshwehti"—meaning "Unitary Golden Umbrella", with the golden umbrella being the symbol of Burmese kings—and made him the heir-apparent of his small kingdom. The king also raised the boy's teenage mother to queen with the title of Yaza Dewi. From his father side, Tabinshwehti was a great-great-great-grandson of King Minkhaung I of Ava, and great-great-grandson of Crown Prince Minye Kyawswa. His mother Khin Oo (sometimes reported as Khin Mya) was a commoner, daughter of the village chief of Le Way (today a township in the Naypyidaw Union Territory).
The young prince was cared for by seven royal servants (two women and five men) throughout his childhood and youth. He grew up playing with children of his servants, including one Ye Htut, the eldest son of Mingyi Swe and his wet nurse Myo Myat. Ye Htut, who was three months older, would become Tabinshwehti's right-hand man.
The young crown prince grew up having to live up to a prophecy at his birth, which claimed that he would grow up to be a great warrior just like Minye Kyawswa. The prophecy of a Minye Kyawswa reincarnate may have been popular in the superstitious world of Burmese politics since Upper Burma was going through immense political turmoil and decades-long internecine warfare. Since the 1480s, the once dominant power of Upper Burma, Ava, had been unable to prevent its key vassal states from breaking away. His father, who himself had broken away from Ava since 1510, required his son to receive an education in military arts. Tabinshwehiti along with Ye Htut and other young men at the palace received training in martial arts, horseback riding, elephant riding, and military strategy.
According to prophecy, Tabinshwehti was the reincarnation of a prince named Minye Kyawswa who had been put to death by his father King Dhammazedi of Hanthawaddy. The prince supposedly prayed the same prayer as Prince Bawlawkyantaw of Hanthawaddy before the latter was put to death by his father King Razadarit in 1390. As Minye Kyawswa of Ava, who was believed to be the reincarnation of Bawlawkyantaw, grew up to be the nemesis of Hanthawaddy, Tabinshwehti, believed to be the reincarnation of Minye Kyawswa of Hanthawaddy, according to the prophecy, would be the nemesis of Hanthawaddy.
Local legends mention that even though Tabinshwehti was born during the nighttime, the swords in the armory shone brightly. This was believed to be an omen that he would be a strong warrior.
His first experience with warfare came in 1525 when Ava's forces led by King Narapati II unsuccessfully laid siege to Toungoo from April to May. In the following years, his father's little principality gained more manpower as refugees from Upper Burma in search of a safe haven streamed in. The influx accelerated after Ava finally fell for good to the forces of Confederation of Shan States on 25 March 1527.
Mingyi Nyo died on 24 November 1530, and the 14-year-old prince ascended to the throne at once. He rewarded all his childhood staff by handing out royal titles, and by marrying two of their daughters—Khin Hpone Soe, daughter of Mingyi Swe and sister of Ye Htut, and Khin Myat, daughter of Shin Nita. He also installed his young friends, including Ye Htut, as confidants.
The young king's first important decision came c. April 1534, when the affair between his half-sister Thakin Gyi and his right-hand man Ye Htut was discovered. The affair under Burmese law constituted an act of treason. Ye Htut, for his part, spurned suggestions of mutiny and submitted to arrest. Tabinshwehti deliberated at length with his ministers, and finally came to the conclusion that Ye Htut should be given his sister in marriage, and a princely title of Kyawhtin Nawrahta. With this decision, Tabinshwehti won the loyalty of his brother-in-law "without parallel in Burmese history".
Meanwhile, war had arrived uncomfortably close to his realm. In late 1532, the Confederation of Shan States, already ruling much of Upper Burma, attacked its erstwhile ally Prome, and sacked the city. Although the Confederation was content to keep Prome as a vassal, the Toungoo leadership was concerned that their city east of Prome on the same latitude, separated only by the Pegu Yoma (Bago Yoma) range, was an "obvious next target." To be sure, Toungoo did have some advantages. Tucked away behind the Pegu Yoma range, the city was not easy to march from Ava in contrast to Prome on the Irrawaddy, which was easily accessible from Ava. Moreover, swelled by refugees, the principality now commanded considerably more manpower than its traditional base would have allowed for. Nevertheless, the Toungoo leadership decided that their kingdom "had to act quickly if it wished to avoid being swallowed up" by the Confederation.
In late 1534, in a complete break from his father's longstanding policy, Tabinshwehti decided to break out of his increasingly narrow realm by attacking the Hanthawaddy kingdom to the south. Though the Burmese chronicles attribute the audacious decision to the king alone, the 18-year-old king was more probably persuaded by older more experienced ministers at the court, who may have also played a major role in the initial campaigns. In the next 16 years, Tabinshwehti along with his deputy Kyawhtin Nawrahta (later Bayinnaung) would go on to unite many of the petty kingdoms that had existed since the fall of the Pagan Empire in 1287.
The king and his court chose Hanthawaddy, which on paper was the strongest kingdom of all post-Pagan kingdoms, as their first target because its inexperienced ruler King Takayutpi did not command the loyalty of his vassals in Martaban (Mottama) and the Irrawaddy delta. Moreover, Hanthawaddy's trade wealth and maritime markets made the coastal kingdom an attractive military target. Perhaps most importantly, the Toungoo court was reasonably certain that Takayutpi would not counterattack. Indeed, about two and half years earlier, Tabinshwehti and his chosen men (eight ponnas, 40 ministers, and a company of 500 most-skillful horsemen led by Kyawhtin Nawrahta) had made an uninvited foray into the Shwemawdaw Pagoda at the outskirts of Pegu, the capital of Hanthawaddy, ostensibly for the king's ear-piercing ceremony. The audacious intrusion went unpunished. Unlike his father Binnya Ran II, whose strong 1495–96 counterattack on Toungoo taught Mingyi Nyo never to raid Hanthawaddy again, Takayutpi could not organize his kingdom's superior resources and counterattack.