Narathihapate
Sign in to saveNarathihapate (, ; also Sithu IV of Pagan; 23 April 1238 – 1 July 1287) was the last king of the Pagan Empire who reigned from 1256 to 1287. The king is known in Burmese history as the "Taruk-Pyay Min" ("the King who fled from the Taruk") for his flight from Pagan (Bagan) to Lower Myanmar in 1285 during the first Mongol invasion (1277–87) of the kingdom. He eventually submitted to Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan dynasty in January 1287 in exchange for a Mongol withdrawal from northern Myanmar. But when the king was assassinated six months later by his son Thihathu, the Viceroy of Prome, the 2
Person
- Born
- 1238-04-23
- Died
- 1287-01-01
via Open Library + Wikidata
Key facts
- Royalty.type
- monarch
- Royalty.name
- Narathihapate နရသီဟပတေ့
- Royalty.title
- King Sithu IV of Pagan
- Royalty.reign
- 6 May 1256 – 1 July 1287
- Royalty.coronation
- November 1256
- Royalty.succession
- King of Burma
- Royalty.predecessor
- Uzana
- Royalty.successor
- Kyawswa (as Viceroy)
- Royalty.suc type
- Successor
- Royalty.reg type
- Chief Minister
- Royalty.regent
- Yazathingyan (1256–57, 1258–60) Ananda Pyissi ( 1271–87)
- Royalty.spouse
- Yadanabon (1256–62) Saw Hla Wun Saw Nan Shin Hpa Shin Mauk Shin Shwe Saw Lon
- Royalty.issue
Key dates
- Born
- 23 April 1238
- Died
- 1 January 1287
via Wikidata · CC0
Article
17 sectionsContents
- Early life
- Reign
- Rise to power
- Governing style
- Mongol invasions
- Border war (1277–78)
- Invasion (1283–85)
- Exile in Lower Burma (1285–87)
- Mongol vassal (1287)
- Death
- Aftermath
- Legacy
- Historiography
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- External sources
Narathihapate (, ; also Sithu IV of Pagan; 23 April 1238 – 1 July 1287) was the last king of the Pagan Empire who reigned from 1256 to 1287. The king is known in Burmese history as the "Taruk-Pyay Min" ("the King who fled from the Taruk") for his flight from Pagan (Bagan) to Lower Myanmar in 1285 during the first Mongol invasion (1277–87) of the kingdom. He eventually submitted to Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan dynasty in January 1287 in exchange for a Mongol withdrawal from northern Myanmar. But when the king was assassinated six months later by his son Thihathu, the Viceroy of Prome, the 250-year-old Pagan Empire broke apart into multiple petty states. The political fragmentation of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery would last for another 250 years until the mid-16th century.
The king is unkindly remembered in the royal chronicles, which in addition to calling a cowardly king who fled from the invaders, also call him "an ogre" and "glutton" who was "great in wrath, haughtiness and envy, exceeding covetous and ambitious." According to scholarship, he was certainly an ineffective ruler but unfairly scapegoated by the chronicles for the fall of the empire, whose decline predated his reign, and in fact had been "more prolonged and agonized".