Shin Bo-Me

Considered a great beauty, Bo-Me was the favorite queen of Minkhaung I.[2] Although the Hmannan Yazawin chronicle states she became the chief queen of Minkhaung in 1407/08,[3] an inscription dated 28 February 1409 by Queen Shin Saw states that Saw was still the chief queen in 1409.[4] She was also the favorite queen of Minkhaung's son and successor Thihathu until Shin Saw Pu became queen. In August 1425, Bo-Me engineered the death of Thihathu by getting Le Than Bwa of Onbaung to assassinate the king. She might have married the successor, eight-year-old Min Hla.[note 1] Three months later, she poisoned the boy king and put her lover Prince Min Nyo on the Ava throne, and became the chief queen.[5] In May 1426, Nyo was overthrown by Gov. Thado of Mohnyin, who subsequently made Bo-Me a junior queen.[6]

The following is her ancestry as given in the Hmannan Yazawin chronicle.[note 2] She was a granddaughter of King Swa Saw Ke of Ava, and Kyawswa I of Pinya, and a great granddaughter of King Thihathu of Pinya and King Kyawswa of Pagan.

• Harvey, G. E. (1925). History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
• Htin Aung, Maung (1967). A History of Burma. New York and London: Cambridge University Press.
• Royal Historical Commission of Burma (1832). Hmannan Yazawin (in Burmese). 1–3 (2003 ed.). Yangon: Ministry of Information, Myanmar.
• Than Tun (December 1959). "History of Burma: A.D. 1300–1400". Journal of Burma Research Society. XLII (II).