Le Than Bwa

Le Than Bwa became involved the palace intrigues in 1425 when he was recruited by Queen Shin Bo-Me to assassinate King Thihathu.[1][5] Chronicles say that although Bo-Me planned to place her lover Prince Min Nyo of Kale on the throne, she initially tried to win over Le Than Bwa by dangling the possibility of his taking over the throne.[1][5] Although Le Than Bwa realized that the court would probably not agree to his kingship given senior princes like Prince Nyo waiting in the wing,[5][6] he nonetheless agreed to execute Bo-Me's scheme. In August 1425, Le Than Bwa and his men ambushed and killed Thihathu at Aung Pinle (modern Amarapura, Mandalay), the location Bo-Me provided.[6][7] The assassination paved the way for Nyo's accession three months later in November.[6][7] At his accession, a grateful Nyo rewarded Le Than Bwa with lavish gifts.[8]

Stupa ruins in Ava (Inwa) today

Le Than Bwa was a senior commander of Ava forces in the subsequent war between Nyo and Gov. Thado of Mohnyin. At the start of the war in February 1426, Le Than Bwa and Gov. Thray Sithu of Myinsaing commanded Ava's defenses, on the eastern and western banks of the Irrawaddy, respectively.[9][8] When Thado's forces broke through Thray Sithu's defenses, Le Than Bwa took over the overall command of the army at Sagaing, across the river from Ava. But he did not fight. He evacuated Sagaing when Thado gave him a substantial amount of gold and silver to leave the scene.[note 3] Ava defenses collapsed afterwards. Other vassal rulers who manned the positions around Ava—the rulers of Toungoo, Taungdwin and Pakhan—too renounced their ties to Nyo, and withdrew to their respective regions.[9][10] King Nyo and Queen Bo-Me fled the capital.[9][10] Thado entered the capital on 16 May 1426, and proclaimed himself king.[note 4]

Initially, Le Than Bwa tried to be the kingmaker of Ava. He tried to overthrow Thado by actively backing the rebellion of Prince Minye Kyawhtin, who had a strong claim to the throne. It was mainly his troops that powered Kyawhtin's expeditions to conquer Ava in 1426–1427 and in 1427–1428. The 1427–1428 expedition gained control of Pinle,[11][12] a well defended town with high brick walls at the edge of the Ava capital region.[13]

The control of Pinle led to Ava's recognition of Onbaung's independence a year later. After Ava forces failed to take Pinle in 1428–1429, Thado sent a mission to Onbaung. The king urged Le Than Bwa to withdraw his support of Minye Kyawhtin in exchange for forming an "alliance", essentially recognizing Onbaung's independence. (Thado also sent a similar mission to Yat Sauk Naung Mun, immediately south of Onbaung, to persuade its sawbwa to withdraw his support of Taungdwin and Yemethin rebellions.) But Le Than Bwa like his counterpart in Yat Sauk refused the offer.[14]

His refusal did not result in any repercussions. Ava was so preoccupied with several rebellions around the core region that it could do nothing about the peripheral states like Onbaung. Indeed, after multiple failed expeditions around the core region in 1430–1434, Thado ceased all military operations for the rest of his reign (to 1439).[15]

Le Than Bwa chose to submit to Ava in 1444. What pushed him over the line was the Chinese military expeditions (into present-day Myanmar) that threatened Onbaung. To be sure, even before the Chinese incursions, his client Kyawhtin was barely holding on to Pinle. By 1443, Thado's successors kings Minye Kyawswa I and Narapati I had defeated long running rebellions in the north and in the south, leaving Pinle as the only holdout.[16] Indeed, Pinle survived Ava's siege in 1443 only because of the Chinese invasions.[17][18] In 1444, he sent an embassy to the Ava garrison at Kaungton to offer his allegiance to Ava.[19] In 1445, he personally went to Sagaing to attend the opening ceremony of the Htupayon Pagoda that King Narapati had just built.[20] (Minye Kyawhtin did not follow suit. The prince was driven out Pinle and Yamethin later in 1445.[21])