If anyone has an interest in the current situation of the living descendants of King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat of Burma, last week I came across a 55-minute documentary on the subject, which I found to be really good.
Renaldo
Interestingly, an attempt was made in the 1980’s:
Sao Htun Hmat Win continued:
“Kingship [in Burma] is not [a matter of] verbal acts, or signs, or making mystical consecrations. It comes by blood. Your blood must be royal. But, U Ne Win is ordinary farmer blood-a peasant from Prome Village… Actually speaking he cannot become a king. He can become President, Chairman, Leader … but not a king! No royal blood. That is what we believe. He began to realize this. U Nu and U Ne Win thought they could be universal kings, but neither ther could become a king. So, [U Ne Win] found a way to become a king in this country by extending his rule. He brought one royal person from England-an Anglo-Burman, Yadana Nat Mei. She was a widow with two sons from an English husband. Her husband band passed away so U Ne Win had the chance to become a pretender. tender. She was a grandchild of King Thibaw. So he had royal blood in her. He married this princess so he could become a king so Myanma people would obey him… But the whole plan was a failure! The people all just laughed that he is only a peasant and he is putting on all these airs.”
Ne Win’s aspirations to kingship were viewed as those of a pretender to an as yet void throne. Like every contender to the throne in the classical patterns of Burmese kingship, the pretender consecrates his legitimacy by marrying the former king’s queen, thereby assuring that the issuance of his line yet partakes of royal blood.
Ingrid Jordt. Burma’s Mass Lay Meditation Movement: Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power (Ohio RIS Southeast Asia Series) (Kindle Locations 2282-2283). Kindle Edition.
Renaldo