Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Back in Arakan: the rise of Mrauk U
Meanwhile, back in the west,
Arakan
had remained subordinate to Bengal until 1531 and
the arrival of Mrauk U's greatest king,
Minbin
(aka Min Pa Gyi; ruled 1531-54). After seiz-
ing the throne, Minbin took advantage of a weakened Bengal Sultanate, sending an army of
12,000toclaimlargeswathesofwhatisnowBangladeshandcelebratinghisvictorywiththe
construction of the landmark Shittaung Paya, the first of Mrauk U's great temples.
Even after recovering their independence, Arakanese Buddhist rulers continued to style
themselves as “sultan”, and court fashions were widely modelled on those at the Islamic
Sultanate of Bengal. Mrauk U's uniquely multicultural kingdom was also the first part of
Myanmar to experience the full impact of Western traders and invaders, suffering repeated
attacks from Portuguese mercenaries as well as hosting a large community of Arab and
European merchants.
Threats from the Portuguese and from the emerging Kingdom of Taungoo remained an
ever-present danger during the reigns ofMinbin'ssuccessors. Min Phalaung (ruled 1572-93)
was obliged to fight off a major invasion by Taungoo in 1580-81, while his successor Min
Razagyi (ruled 1593-1612) managed to defeat Taungoo forces in 1599 and even succeeded
in sacking the Taungoo capital of Bago itself.
The empire strikes back
Reports ofthe demise ofthe Taungoo dynasty turned out to be somewhat premature. Follow-
ingArakan'ssackofBagoin1599,theempirereviveddramatically underBayinnaung'sson,
Nyaungyan
(ruled 1599-1606), who by the end of his reign had regained control of much of
northern Myanmar and the Shan States, ushering in the so-called
Restored Taungoo Dyn-
asty
(aka the Nyaungyan dynasty). His son and successor,
Anaukpetlun
(ruled 1606-28),
further reasserted Taungoo's control over large parts of Myanmar as well as defeating the
army of Filipe de Brito e Nicote, the rogue Portuguese ruler of
Thanlyin
, in 1613. The old
cityofAvabecamethecapitalofthekingdomfrom1599to1613,afterwhichitwasreturned
to Bago until 1635 before once again returning to Ava, where it remained.
Almost a century of relative peace and stability followed until the 1720s and 1730s, during
which period growing external pressures led to the empire's slow disintegration. Raiders
from Manipur began encroaching along the Upper Chindwin valley while Taungoo's Thai
provinces in Lan Na (Chiang Mai) also rebelled, and Qing-dynasty forces from China seized
parts of Shan and Kachin states. Then, in 1740, the Mon also cast off the Taungoo yoke,
founding the
Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom
(with the support of the French). Not con-
tent with reasserting their own independence, Mon forces invaded northern Myanmar in
1751, assisted by Portuguese and Dutch mercenaries and using weapons supplied by the
French. In 1752 they captured Ava itself, ending two and a half centuries of Taungoo rule.
