The granddaughter of the last king of Burma sells paper decoration in the local market. Her mother lives in a humble stone house near the grave of her father, King Thibaw.
The story of King Thibaw started long ago when the nineteen-year-old came to the Lion Throne following a series of massacres. King Mindon, Thibaw’s father, had envisioned the succession quite differently, but his queens ensured that it was Thibaw who sat on the Lion Throne.
As custom went, all of Thibaw’s relations were slaughtered, and to drown out their cries lest they disturb the King, loud dramas were staged. But the King’s opulence (who had a hundred slipper bearers and sixty betel box bearers) was not to last as the Anglo-Burmese Wars in 1826, and 1850 meant the British were edging closer. Moreover, the killings of the King’s relatives gave the perfect moral backing for annexing Upper Burma.
For seven years, the King had ruled Ava or Upper Burma and is often blamed for the loss of the land. But this accusation may not based on fact as the period was one of brutal colonisation. So, if not the English, Ava could very well have slipped into French hands.
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