Princess Thonbanhla

This article is about the Burmese princess and nat. For the sister of Mahagiri, see Thonbanhla.

Princess Thonbanhla (Burmese: သုံးပန်လှ မင်းသမီး; lit. 'beautiful in three ways' or 'Three Times Beautiful') is a Burmese nat spirit. According to tradition, she was either Saw Phyu Hteikhta, the younger sister of the ruler of Taungnyo, or a commoner from a small village. Renowned for her beauty, she was sent as a queen-designate to King Duttabaung of Sri Ksetra. Following her rejection by the king, she later died of sorrow and shame.

Her legend is often conflated with that of Thonbanhla, a member of the official pantheon of 37 nats. As the two figures share the same name, oral traditions occasionally merge them; the biography of the nat Thonbanhla sometimes mistakenly incorporates the narrative of Princess Thonbanhla.

Legends

According to legend, Thonbanhla was a native of Kansun Nyaung, a Mon village in Hanthawaddy. She was renowned for a mystical quality: she was "beautiful in three ways within a single day." Her appearance reportedly changed to match the distinct beauties of morning, noon, and evening. News of her divine beauty reached King Duttabaung of Sri Ksetra (Pyay). Captivated by the reports, the king summoned her to become his queen. However, her arrival at the palace sparked immediate jealousy among the king's existing wives and concubines. The palace women conspired to prevent Thonbanhla from meeting the king. They bribed the royal messengers and spread false rumors, claiming that her beauty was a deception and that she was actually a giantess or an ogre of such immense proportions that she could not fit through the city gates, where she lived in a hut and survived by weaving. She later built a pagoda known as the Koe Gyi Hlote Pagoda using property acquired through weaving. However, King Duttabaung never intended to take her into his harem, and she eventually died of sorrow and became a nat.[1][2][3]

An alternative tradition identifies the princess as Shin Saw Phyu Hteikhta, the younger sister of the ruler of Taungnyo, a small neighboring polity of Sri Ksetra located near present-day Nattalin in the Bago Region. In this account, she was sent to Sri Ksetra as a tribute to King Duttabaung, intended to serve as a royal consort to strengthen diplomatic ties between the two states. However, the king's existing consorts, envious of her beauty, conspired to have her cast out. The king easily fell for the slander, as he had little interest in Thonbanhla, having already been deeply infatuated with Queen Panhtwar, the female ruler of Beikthano. While in exile, the princess was reportedly so stricken with self-doubt that she paused in a swampy area and dug into the ground with her bare hands to see her reflection in the water. The lake formed there is still visible today and is known as Let-the Yay-Kan (Claw Lake).[4]

Although King Duttabaung eventually uncovered the palace deception and pursued her, Thonbanhla died of grief and exhaustion in the forest before he could reach her. Heartbroken, the king interred her remains on the site of her death and established a settlement for her loyal servants to maintain the tomb. This settlement became the village of Ko Gyi Myoke (Burmese: ကိုယ်ကြီးမြှုပ်; lit. 'where the body is buried'), located within the modern Hmawza village tract.[4] After her death, the princess's spirit reportedly appeared to King Duttabaung in a dream. The king then established a spirit shrine dedicated to her and granted the surrounding villages to her as her apaing-za (territorial possession). It is widely believed in surrounding villages that those who engage in backbiting, slander, or sowing discord may incur her curse, which is said to result in leprosy or other severe skin diseases. Conversely, she is believed to protect the harvest and the weather for those who live righteously and devoutly. During worship ceremonies for the princess, devotees typically offer three types of scarves, along with coconuts, bananas, and various snacks.[5]

Her legend is often conflated with that of Thonbanhla, the sister of the blacksmith Maung Tint De, known as the Mahagiri nat, because the two figures share the same name and are occasionally merged in oral traditions. While distinct from the Thonbanhla, who is one of the official 37 nats in the Burmese pantheon, Princess Thonbanhla is sometimes mistakenly listed as one of the official 37 nats due to this confusion.[6]

Yet another legend identifies Princess Thonbanhla as the sister-in-law of Ma Aung Phyu. In this local tradition, she is regarded as a "spinster spirit" (or a maiden spirit) who maintains a strict aversion to topics of domesticity. It is believed that she is highly displeased when visitors or devotees discuss marriage, weddings, or family life.[7]

Legacy

Today, the site of Ko Gyi Myoke preserves the princess's legacy through a dedicated nat shrine, ruined pagodas, and a notable wrought-iron statue of the princess. Her memory is honored annually during the Buddhist Lent. Villagers from Hmawza and Muhtaw collect donations to fund a major ceremony of worship held on the eve of the full moon day of Waso.[4]

The Thonbanhla Monastery, a historical brick structure in Hmawza, is named after the princess. It is situated near Let-the Yay-Kan, which local legend identifies as her burial site.[8]

Tomb excavation

In January 2019, the Department of Archaeology, Myanmar, announced that it would systematically re-excavate the burial site of Princess Thonbanhla. The department stated that a previous excavation, led by Man Win Khine Than in 1998, had been unsuccessful and was therefore suspended.[9]

References

  1. ^ 37 Kings and Spirits, U Kan Min
  2. ^ Hla Thamein. "Thirty-Seven Nats". Yangonow. Archived from the original on 2006-06-24. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
  3. ^ Myanmar Encyclopedia, Volume (13) Three Seven Kings
  4. ^ a b c "An ancient princess still haunts Pyay". The Myanmar Times. 26 July 2016. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019.
  5. ^ "ဒဏ္ဍာရီထဲက သုံးပန်လှ ကျိန်စာ…". lotaya.mpt.com.mm. 12 February 2020.
  6. ^ Sithu, Min (1992). မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ နတ်ကိုးကွယ်မှုသမိုင်း (in Burmese). Mraṅʻʹ Chve Cā ʼupʻ Tuikʻ. p. 52.
  7. ^ ၁၂ ပွဲစျေးသည်နှင့် ကျွန်မတို့အညာ (in Burmese). Krīʺ pvāʺ reʺ Cā ʾupʻ Tuikʻ. 2002. p. 45.
  8. ^ "သရေခေတ္တရာက သုံးပန်လှတို့ဆီ". The Irrawaddy (in Burmese). 14 July 2019.
  9. ^ "သရေခေတ္တရာပျူခေတ် မိဖုရားလောင်းတစ်ဦးဖြစ်သူ သုံးပန်လှမင်းသမီး မြှုပ်နှံထားရာ နေရာအား ရှေးဟောင်းသုတေသနက စနစ်တကျပြန်လည်တူးဖော်မည်". Eleven Media Group Co., Ltd (in Burmese).
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