Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Glossary
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Khin Myo Chit: The Voice of a Closet Feminist
- Chapter 2 Ludu Daw Amar: The Voice of Unity
- Chapter 3 Ma Thida: The Voice of Hidden Truths and Changing Times
- Chapter 4 Aung San Suu Kyi: The Voice of a Pragmatic
- Annexure I Chronology of Khin Myo Chit's Publications
- Annexure II Chronology of Ludu Daw Amar's Publications
- Annexure III Chronology of Ma Thida's Publications
- Bibliography
- Copyright and Sources of Photographs
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2016
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Glossary
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Khin Myo Chit: The Voice of a Closet Feminist
- Chapter 2 Ludu Daw Amar: The Voice of Unity
- Chapter 3 Ma Thida: The Voice of Hidden Truths and Changing Times
- Chapter 4 Aung San Suu Kyi: The Voice of a Pragmatic
- Annexure I Chronology of Khin Myo Chit's Publications
- Annexure II Chronology of Ludu Daw Amar's Publications
- Annexure III Chronology of Ma Thida's Publications
- Bibliography
- Copyright and Sources of Photographs
- Index
Summary
Queen Supaya–Lat
“And the queen was bloodthirsty. Then was she very different from the women of her nation?”
–Fielding-Hall“…all this talk of defeat is the talk of the old man and cowards.”
–Ni Ni MyintThe young Queen Supaya-lat and King Thibaw lived within the walled citadel of Mandalay. Their fabled palace with its tinkling fountains and moats of floating water lilies could have with ease belonged to Scheherazade's tales. And within the charmed walls of the palace, life was very pleasant indeed – pink-cheeked handmaidens from the Shan state played hide and seek with the Queen, their pretty feet showing just a little from under the shimmering pink silk skirts. Burmese rubies glowed on their ear lobes and strings of pearls around their necks – against the dark teak of the palace walls they made a very fetching picture indeed.
Sometimes a bird from a foreign sky flew into the Queen's quarters and the Queen – no, no she did not kill the poor creature. Instead she soothed it, gave it some water to drink, placed perhaps a gold leaf on its beak. And her handmaidens laughed in merriment at their Queen's act of clemency, reminiscent of the young Prince Siddhartha's tenderness for the stricken swan:
“Sitting with knees crossed, as Lord Buddha sits–
And, soothing with a touch the wild thing's fright,
…And while the left hand held, the right hand drew
The cruel steel forth from the wound, and laid
Cool leaves and healing honey on the smart.
Yet all so little knew the boy of pain
That curiously into his wrist he pressed
The arrow's barb, and winced to feel it sting.
And turned with tears to soothe his bird again.”
But ominous clouds were darkening the horizons of this Eden. For it was said that the young Queen Supaya-lat was as ambitious and as strong willed as her mother, the Dowager Queen Hsinbyumya-shin, King Thibaw's stepmother and the Middle Palace Queen of his father, the late King Mindon. Like her mother she plotted and conspired to protect the sovereignty of her husband's throne and what she conceived to be the purity of the royal lineage.
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- Information
- The Female Voice of MyanmarKhin Myo Chit to Aung San Suu Kyi, pp. 1 - 7Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015