Konbaung Set Yazawin


Konbaung Set Maha Yazawindawgyi is the last and unofficial royal chronicle of Burma, covering the Konbaung Dynasty. Its author, Maung Maung Tin, a British colonial official and a son of Konbaung royalty, took Konbaung period portions of the two previous official chronicles, Hmannan Yazawin and Dutiya Yazawin, added the last years of the dynasty, and packaged it as the single Konbaung era chronicle. It was first published in 1905, and later updated in 1921 to include the death of King Thibaw in 1916 as a postscript.

Brief

The author of the chronicle, Maung Maung Tin was a British colonial official as well as a son of Konbaung royalty. Tin updated the chronicle to 1885, to the fall of the monarchy, relying mainly on the court records obtained from several members of the royal library and also on the papers seized by the British and kept in libraries. Because almost all the records of the Konbaung Dynasty had gone up in flames as drunken British soldiers burned down the royal library soon after King Thibaw's surrender in 1885, Tin had to begin the collection effort of the surviving source materials still in possession of many court members.
For the compilation of Konbaung Set, he used the surviving materials as well as several interviews with the surviving members of the court. The main consultants to Tin were:
NameNotes
Taungzin MinthaSon of crown prince
Minhtin Maha SithuGovernor of Wetmasut
Minhla Maha Zeya Nanda Thingyan U Hla BuDeputy Minister at Konbaung court
Minhtin Minhla Yaza U Hsu PanRoyal messenger
Ne Myo Minhtin Yaza U Po KywePrivy Council member
Ne Myo Minhtin Yaza U Tote KyiPrivy Council member and son-in-law of the crown prince

Publications

All publications of Konbaung Set as of 2004 were in Burmese only. Konbaung Set was first published in 1905, and a second edition was published in 1922. The second edition was reprinted as the third printing in 1967–1968. It was followed by the fourth printing in 2004.