Tharrawaddy was born
Maung Khin to Crown Prince
Thado Minsaw (son of King
Bodawpaya) and Princess Min Kye on 14 March 1787. When his elder brother
Bagyidaw ascended the throne in 1819, Tharrawaddy was appointed Heir Apparent. As crown prince, he fought in the
First Anglo-Burmese War. In February 1837, he raised the standard of rebellion after escaping to
Shwebo, the ancestral place of the Konbaung kings. Tharrawaddy succeeded in overthrowing Bagyidaw who abdicated on 30 April 1837. Tharrawaddy ascended the throne on the same day. Princess Min Myat Shwe, a granddaughter of
Hsinbyushin, whom he married in 1809, was crowned as his chief queen (
Nanmadaw Mibaya Hkaungyi). In 1841, King Tharrawaddy donated a 42-ton bell called the
Maha Tissada Gandha Bell and of goldplating to the
Shwedagon Pagoda in
Yangon. His reign was rife with rumours of preparations for another war with the British who had added the Arakan and
Tenasserim to their dominions. Tharrawaddy died on 17 November 1846. It was, however, not until 1852, after Tharrawaddy was succeeded by his son
Pagan Min, that the
Second Anglo-Burmese War broke out. ==References==