Mindu Pe

Mindu Pe (911-25 March 931), was a Maharapurese princess who was married to Shawekki, Balish Emperor, and died before he came to the throne. The Mindu Pe Pagoda was built to memorize her after her husband’s ascension to the throne.

Biography
She was born in 911 to her father Prince Min Kyaw, Duke of Katalon, the third son of King Kratmaung I, and mother Princess Shwe Ma Pho Mey, Kratmaung I’s niece. She wedded Shawekki, the heir of the Balish empire in 925, at the age of 14, to become the crown princess, as a symbol of tension-relieving between Baland and Maharapura. She was beloved by her husband. The next year after their wedding, Mindu Pe gave birth to a daughter Anne, who died 8 years later. Then in 928, she bore 2 sons Thusuaye and Kanaunt Reramonsi. The new-born boys’ great-grandfather the emperor was delightful, granted Thusuaye Prince of Anowk (Kanaunt Reramonsi died shortly after his birth). But pitifully, Thusuaye died at the age of 2 in 930. The year Prince Thusuaye died, Mindu Pe was pregnant again, but she never bore this child. She died suddenly on 25 March 931, 7 months after her pregnancy, at the age of 20. She was buried in Yanimen. Shawekki couldn’t receive this fact for a long time, who wouldn’t want to hold a funeral for his deceased wife, because he couldn’t believe she’d die even in pregnancy. Mindu Pe’s funeral was held under Kanaunt II’s command finally on 14 April 931. In 934, a year after Shawekki’s coronation, the emperor ordered to build a pagoda for Mindu Pe in Yanimen adjacent to her tomb. Shawekki remarried in 934, with a Muslim princess from Bangladesh, Muztal Sultan Begum, who was said to greatly resembled Mindu Pe.

Issue
1. Anne, born on 21 December 926, died in May 934, at the age 7.

2. Thusuaye, Prince of Anowk, born on 3 March 928, died on 29 July 930, at the age 2.

3. Kanaunt Reramonsi, born on 3 March 928, died 5 hours later.