Tabinshwehti (Burmese တဗင္ရ္ဝ္ဟေထီး; MLCTS=ta. bang hrwe hti: ; ; 1512 – 1550; sometimes transcribed Tabinshweti ) was the second king of the Dynastie Taungû of Burma and the founder of the Second Burmese Empire.

Tabinshwehti succeeded his/her father Mingyinyo in 1531. It launched starting from 1535 a series of military campaigns which enabled him to reunify most of Burma and were stopped only by its assassination in 1550.

His/her brother-in-law Kyaw Htin Nawrata, who succeeded to him under the name of Bayinnaung, continued the same policy, bringing the Second Burmese Empire to his maximum extension.

Pégou (1535-38)

Between 1535 and 1538, Tabinshwehti launched since Taungû 4 military forwardings towards the south, against the kingdom My of Pégou. This kingdom dominated the Low-Burma, which it had unified under Rajadhirat (reign 1385-1421). Tabinshwehti seized initially the Western part of the delta around Bassein, then it reinforced its army and directly attacked Pégou, which fell in 1538.

Several factors make it possible to explain this war. On the one hand, Pégou was a rich city, thanks to its important maritime trade. Taungû was supplied there in textiles and salt, which did not let anything to him be unaware of this richness.

A second factor was the danger Shan: The confederation of princes Shan had conquered Ava in 1527, then Prome, in the west of Taungû, in 1532, just after the crowning of Tabinshwehti. Taungû was thus the only Burmese bastion remaining, and the following objective of Shans. Conquérir Pégou made it possible Tabinshwehti to increase its resources, as well as men as in animals and material. It was thus better able to face the threat come from North.

For more safety, it transferred its capital to Pégou as of 1539.

Prome (1540)

Tabinshwehti sent its brother-in-law and general-in-chief, the future king Bayinnaung, against Prome, where the king My of Pégou Takayutpi had taken refuge (reign 1526-1538).

During the Battle of Naung Yo, Bayinnaung faced a massed higher force on other side of a river. After having crossed on a bridge of boats (on rafts, in another version), it ordered the destruction of this one. This action was intended to urge on its troops, from now on private of retirement. He neglected also a message of Tabinshwehti, which ordered to him to await the arrival of the remainder of the army. Bayinnaung answered him that it had already attacked and demolishes the enemy. With those which criticized it on this subject, he would have answered that if they were overcome, they would die, and that this fault would thus not have importance.

Tabinshwehti could not take Prome, which was defended by thick walls and was supported by the Shan S of Ava, but when Takayupti died, much of its faithful joined with him. Tabinshwehti further increased its forces while engaging of the Mercenaire S of various nationalities, of which Moslems and Portuguese. It would have had to 700 Portuguese.

Martaban (1541-42)

The port of Martaban was difficult to conquer, because it was defended by Portuguese soldiers. Side of the ground, it had important fortifications, and on sea 7 Portuguese ships ordered by Paulo Seixas. Tabinshwehti put the seat in front of the city and required a complete rendering. Martaban tried to buy the Portuguese mercenary Joano Cayeyro, whom it had engaged, but in vain. Finally, Tabinshwehti used Brûlot S to set fire to or draw aside the Portuguese ships. A raft armed with arquebuses and guns was transferred onto the river opposite the fortifications. The walls were cleaned of their defenders and a final attack was launched, seven months after the beginning of the seat. The Portuguese writer Fernão Mendes Pinto reports in detail plunderings and executions which would have proceeded on this occasion.

Prome and the High-Burma (1542-45)

After a ceremony of crowning and offerings with the Pagoda Shwedagon in 1541, Tabinshwehti led a new forwarding towards North. The first attacks against Prome were failures. Prome called with its help the Shan S of Ava and the Arakan. Forces Thai arrived, but Bayinnaung met them and demolished them before they could reach the city.

The head office of Prome trailed until the rain season: Tabinshwehti ordered with its troops to plant Riz and made come from the reinforcements and the provisions of Low-Burma. The troops coming from Arakan by terrestrial way fell into a ambush from Bayinnaung, and the unit was folded up. After five months of seat, the famine caused defections with Prome, whose defenses did not resist a generalized attack. The bag of the city and the punishment of its inhabitants are also described in detail by Fernão Mendes Pinto.

In 1544, the Shan S launched a counter-attack, but without success. The following year, Tabinshwehti went towards north and took Pagan and Salin, where it left a garrison. Instead of continuing towards North and to try to recover Ava, it turned towards the West and the East, against the coastal kingdoms of Arakan and Ayutthaya.

Arakan (1546-7)

The sovereigns of Sandoway, in the south of Arakan, had sworn fidelity in Tabinshwehti in exchange of the throne of Arakan. However the fortifications of the capital Mrauk U, built with the assistance of Portuguese, were designed to discourage the usual tactics of frontal attack. During the seat of the city, its leaders, helped by monks, succeeded in convincing Tabinshwehti to raise the seat and to turn over to Pégou.

Ayutthaya (1548)

While Tabinshwehti was in shift in Arakan, the Royaume of Ayutthaya had organized raids against Tavoy, in the Tenasserim. Tabinshwehti ordered to the governor of Martaban to take again Tenasserim and in 1548, it carried out itself an large army of invasion by the Col of the Three Pagodas to attack Ayutthaya.

The queen Sri Suriyothai in person took part in the battle against the forces of Tabinshwehti. vis-a-vis important fortifications and with Portuguese mercenaries with Ayutthaya even, this one decided to divert its army towards North and to attack weaker cities like Kamphaengphet, Sukhothai and Phitsanulok.

During this war, the Mons were raised in Low-Burma, and in its return, Tabinshwehti was assassinated by of Mons from its own court (1550). It followed one short period of domination mône before Bayinnaung finished reconquering the kingdom of his/her brother-in-law.

Posterity

• the Nat of Tabinshwehti is one of the 37 spirits venerated with the Myanmar (in addition to Buddhism).

• One of the first modern novels published in Burmese at the beginning of XXère century, Tabinshwehti Wuttu Daw Gyi , is devoted to its reign.

• the Burmese military countryside against the Communists in 1962 was named " Tabinshwehti" operation;.

• Its invasion of Ayutthaya is one of the important components of Thai film of 2001 Suriyothai (the scenario profited from the assistance of the Thai historian Sunait Chutintaranond).

Bibliography (in English)

• Charney, Michael Walter (1998). " Small channel off has Mainland Trading State: Rahkaing Under the Early Mrauk-U Kings, C. 1430-1603." Newspaper off Burma Studies 3:1 - 34.

• Fernquest, Jon (2005b) " Min-gyi-nyo, the Shan Invasions off Ava (1524-27), and the *Beginnings off Expansionary Warfare in Toungoo Burma: 1486-1539." SOAS Bulletin off Burma Research 3.2 Fall.
• Harvey, G.E. (1925) History off Burma from the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824, The Beginning off the English Conquest, London: Longmans, Green and Co.
• Kala, U. 1959-1961. Mahayazawinkyi great chronicles. 3 flights. Burma Research Society, Burmese text series No 5. vol. 1 (1959) and vol. 2 (1960), edited by Saya Pwa, vol. 3 (1961), edited by Saya U Khine Soe. Rangoon: Hanthawaddy Near. (Kala I, 1959; Kala II, 1960; Kala III, 1961)
• Leider, Jacques Pierre. (1998) " The Kingdom D' Arakan (Burma): Its Political History Enters the Beginning of the XV and the XVII Century End, " PhD essay, National institute of the Languages and Eastern Civilizations, Paris.
• Lieberman, Victor B. (1980) " Europeans, Trade, and the Unification off Burma, C. 1540-1620, " Oriens Extremus 27 (1980): 203-226.
• Pinto, Fernão Mendes. 1989. The travels off Mendes Pinto. Translated and edited by Rebecca. D. Catz. Chicago: University off Chicago Near.
• Shorto (tr.) (No dates) Unpublished typescript translation off pp. 34-44, 61-264 off Phra Candakanto (ED.) Nidana Ramadhipati-katha (gold ace one binding Rajawamsa Dhammaceti Mahapitakadhara), authorship attributed to Bannyadala (C. 1518-1572), Pak Lat, Siam, 1912.
• Surakiat, Pamaree (2005) " Thai-Burmese Warfare during the Sixteenth Century and the Growth off the First Toungoo Empire." Newspaper off the Siam Society 93:69 - 100.
• Surakiat, Pamaree (2006) " Natural The Changing off Conflict between Burma and Siam ace seen from the growth and development off Burmese states from the 16th to the 19th centuries." ARI Working Paper, No 64, March 2006,