Alaungpaya

King of Burma (r. 1752-1760)

• Born: c. 1714
• Birthplace: Moksobomyo, Shwebo (now in Myanmar)
• Died: April 13, 1760?
• Place of death: Kinyua, Thaton district, Burma (now in Myanmar)

Alaungpaya established a central Burmese kingdom by conquering and unifying areas ruled by warlords and ethnic leaders, founding the Alaungpaya Dynasty. He implemented religious, social, civic, and legal reforms domestically while reinforcing his political authority and seeking diplomatic relations with foreign representatives.

Early Life

Because Alaungpaya (ah-lah-oong-PI-ah) invented much of his biography to validate his power, historians cannot confirm, or deny, the biography’s claims. Contemporary sources agree on some basics. He was born around 1714 in Moksobomyo, north of Burma’s capital at Ava, and named Aungzeya. His father, like many of his ancestors, was a community leader. His parents called him Aungzeya. Eighteenth century Burmese used personal names only and did not have surnames.

Burmese kings usually were not hereditary rulers. Instead, they acquired power by courage demonstrated through military performance and by winning public support. They chose officials based on ability, bravery, and loyalty, and laws were based on customs. A variety of ethnic groups, including the Shan, Manipuri, and Mon, lived independently in Burma and also nearby.

As an adult, Aungzeya served as an official in Moksobomyo after his father retired. When the Burmese king died in 1733, his son became ruler but was unable to control the chaos that occurred during this transition of power. Manipuri horsemen raided villages and overwhelmed the inept Burmese military. Disgusted by the weak king, terrorized residents talked about having more effective leaders who would defend them, and the name Aungzeya circulated as a possibility. Infuriated, the king demanded Aungzeya arrested as a potential traitor. Aungzeya stated he was uninterested in ruling and resumed his normal activities for almost twenty years.

Life’s Work

Aungzeya’s ambitions changed in 1752. Pegu, a Mon kingdom, was the catalyst for Aungzeya’s rise to power as Alaungpaya. Pegu king Binnya Dala seized Ava in April of 1752. That victory secured political control for the Mon, who usurped the Burmese Toungoo Dynasty’s power, which had been in place since 1486. Binnya Dala underestimated the people’s support. He dispersed delegates to secure headmen’s and officials’ allegiance in the western and northern provinces. Two men refused, each stating he was king and demanding villages declare allegiance to him.

Now in his late thirties, Aungzeya realized that the situation could become volatile. He resented this power shift and schemed how to overthrow Binnya Dala to avoid serving him. He also worried that the two self-declared kings would endanger Burma. Because of his arrest in 1733, Aungzeya’s name was known in surrounding villages, where people respected him. He began reinforcing Moksobomyo’s defenses and recruited an army, encouraging men to join him in a revolution to oust the Mon. People from forty-six nearby towns relocated to Moksobomyo. After securing headmen’s permission, Aungzeya ordered all those villages razed and water sources, woods, and plants near Moksobomyo destroyed to hinder attackers. He demanded a new council that represented all villagers.

While Moksobomyo was being prepared for an attack, scouts patrolled the surrounding area and warned that Mon warriors were approaching. Aungzeya convinced the council to fight the Mon instead of swearing allegiance, emphasizing that honorable men only make oaths they will never betray. He told his parents that he was prepared to fight because he had to protect Burma, vowing he would triumph and become king. His mother tried to dissuade him, stressing that the people inside Moksobomyo’s walls were outnumbered. Aungzeya replied that his supporters’ desire to defeat the Mon would prevail. The defensive forces repulsed initial attacks and gained additional soldiers as well as cannon and weapons. After five days of fighting, the Mon forces retreated and built fortifications by the river. Aungzeya’s troops razed those structures and forced the Mon to flee to Ava.

Aungzeya declared himself Burma’s king and adopted the name Alaungpaya, suggesting he was a future Buddha. He said his ancestors had belonged to the dynasty that ruled Ava’s first kingdom. Wanting to establish a separate identity from prior kings and capitals, Alaungpaya renamed his hometown Shwebo, derived from the Burmese word shwe, representing gold, in honor of his victories, and he designated it his dynasty’s capital. He designed his royal city to include a palace, moat, spirit shrine, watchtower, and the Shwe Dagon Pagoda built at the place of his birth. That pagoda later became his tomb.

In 1753, Alaungpaya’s army attacked and conquered Ava. They then traveled through the Irrawaddy River valley to rout the Mon in southern Burma and unify Upper and Lower Burma. Alaungpaya’s victories included seizing Dagon in 1755 and renaming it Yangon (now called Rangoon) for use as a port. Within two years, Alaungpaya’s forces controlled Pegu, captured Binnya Dala, and also subdued Shan and Manipur rivals. Alaungpaya changed names of places to assert his dominance and legitimacy as a ruler. He expected former leaders to pay homage and recognize his authority.

Alaungpaya sought diplomatic relations with Great Britain to counter the Mon-France alliance striving to control Burmese territory. He wrote a letter to King George II and became enraged when George failed to respond directly to him. Instead, Alaungpaya contemptuously dealt with envoys, quizzing them about English protocol and customs. A 1757 treaty, the first that Burma achieved with a European interest, outlined ample trading benefits for the British East India Company, which disappointed Alaungpaya when England did not reciprocate with sufficient promised military support. Tensions were further strained when a customs agent told Alaungpaya that the English at Negrais assisted Mon rebels on that island. As a result, Alaungpaya’s soldiers killed alleged traitors and destroyed their factory in 1759. This incident disrupted Burma’s diplomatic involvement with Great Britain until the late nineteenth century.

Although he wanted to focus on domestic concerns, Alaungpaya relentlessly followed the Mon into Siam (now called Thailand), considering them a threat to Burmese interests. The Burmese army moved through Martaban and Tavoy, then through the Tenasserim region and towns by the Gulf of Siam before going northward and circling the Siamese capital Ayutthaya (also called Ayuthia) by early April, 1760. Arriving during the rainy season, Alaungpaya suffered dysentery, according to Burmese sources, although other accounts indicate he was wounded. His troops transported him home to Burma. Alaungpaya died en route (sources cite two possible death dates), and his cremated ashes were buried in his tomb at Shwebo.

Significance

Expanding Burma’s territory, Alaungpaya initiated what became the final Burmese dynasty, which endured until 1885. His reign was notable because it was the third time Burma had been unified. Alaungpaya’s achievement followed the successful unifications by Pagan ruler Anawrahta from 1044 to 1077 and Toungoo king Bayinnaung from 1551 to 1581. When he was king, Alaungpaya prevented foreign powers, particularly France and England, from conquering Burma or interfering with domestic policies.

Alaungpaya often enslaved or executed his enemies, yet he created an environment that pleased his followers. The Burmese optimistically embraced Alaungpaya as a leader after previous leaders had been disappointing and ineffective. Alaungpaya introduced reforms to resolve a religious schism. He forbade animal sacrifices for religious purposes, especially slaughtering cows that were crucial for pulling equipment for planting rice, a crop he encouraged people to cultivate. He promoted the arts, appointing court poets. Interested in the creation of law codes, Alaungpaya helped prepare the law treatise Manugye. Rules included the prohibition of alcohol consumption because that drink could weaken military forces. He exempted everyone aged sixty and older from required service to leaders and paid their expenses if they participated in religious activities and made pilgrimages.

Alaungpaya tried to improve water resources and transportation with the creation of a dam, canals, and reservoirs. Indicating Alaungpaya’s enduring influence on Burmese culture, generations of officials have traveled to Shwebo to obtain soil for ceremonial usages because they associate it with victory and Alaungpaya’s transformation of Burma.

Bibliography

Aung, Maung Htin. A History of Burma. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967. The first English-language history of Burma written by a Burma native. Thorough account of Alaungpaya’s dynasty based on primary sources. Includes a chronology, appendices with dynastic charts, and an annotated bibliography.

Cady, John F. A History of Modern Burma. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1958. A scholar who taught in Rangoon describes political and military organization in eighteenth century Burma, explaining Burmese viewpoints and the use of symbols and personnel to assert royal authority.

Harvey, Godfrey E. History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824, the Beginning of the English Conquest. Reprint. New Delhi, India: Asian Educational Services, 2000. An Indian Civil Service employee’s detailed account of Alaungpaya’s rise to power and his conquests, containing some inaccuracies and biased comments because of misunderstandings of Burmese language and culture.

Okudaira, Ryuji, and Andrew Huxley. “A Burmese Tract on Kingship: Political Theory in the 1782 Manuscript of Manugye.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 64 (2001): 248-259. Analyzes a legal volume that originated when Alaungpaya was king and was supplemented when his son Bodawpaya became king, revealing aspects of eighteenth century Burmese culture, society, and politics.

Trager, Frank N. Burma: From Kingdom to Republic: A Historical and Political Analysis. New York: Praeger, 1966. A lengthy discussion of Alaungpaya’s interests in diplomatic agreements with England based on primary Burmese and English sources, describing treaty negotiations in detail. Includes extensive endnotes.