Two Edged Swords in Bagan

~Alaung_Hpaya~ · 27th March 2007, 03:12 PM

Thought it might be interesting to Mark and other dha fans that the fourth image in the original post and this image directly above is of the second nat in the pantheon of 37 Maung Tint De aka Mahagiri Nat aka Master Handsome Face. ( the first is ThagyaMin king of the nats )

Maung Tint De was a legendary 4th century blacksmith who met an untimely death ( burnt alive ) at the hands of a belligerent king .

Quote:

The belief in nats goes back many centuries. The first named nat was a fabled fourth century blacksmith, Maung Tint De, who lived with his mother and younger sister in Tagaung.

Maung Tint De’s prodigious physical strength and his popularity among the local people worried the king, who plotted to have him killed.

According to the fable, Maung Tint De and his mother escaped, but the king seized the sister and made her his queen.

Maung Tint De returned to Tagaung at the behest of the king, who then arrested him and had him burnt alive. Maung Tint De’s sister leapt into the flames to join him, and subsequently all their family died of grief or at the hands of the king.

Irrawaddy News

He and his sister guard the gates into old Bagan . I believe he is the patron saint of black smiths ( including sword makers ) .

Mark · 27th March 2007, 09:10 PM

Very interesting. I had heard of the legend of Maung Tint De, but not the other stories.

Nats have been very integral to Burmese life, and history. The delivery of bad news regarding a defeat of the Burmese army by the Chinese was supposed to have been delivered by a nat. As the story goes, the nats themselves fought in the air above the battle, and one (I forget his name) was shot by an arrow and fell from the sky. This in part lead to the Chinese victory, and the wounded nat flew back to the palace and woke up one of the king's advisors to give him the news (and the cause of the defeat, of course), which the advisor passed on to the king. The king was so terrified that he abandoned the capital and fled south, becoming subsequently known as "The King Who Fled From the Chinese" (again, I forget the precise name of the king, but the events are historical).

It stikes me as pretty clever to have a nat deliver the bad news to the king, as well as take some blame for the defeat. Otherwise the unfortunate (human) messenger, and likely the commanders of the army, would have probably lost their heads. You can't much complain if a nat is involved, though.

27th March 2007, 09:10 PM	#2
Mark Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 987	Very interesting. I had heard of the legend of Maung Tint De, but not the other stories. Nats have been very integral to Burmese life, and history. The delivery of bad news regarding a defeat of the Burmese army by the Chinese was supposed to have been delivered by a nat. As the story goes, the nats themselves fought in the air above the battle, and one (I forget his name) was shot by an arrow and fell from the sky. This in part lead to the Chinese victory, and the wounded nat flew back to the palace and woke up one of the king's advisors to give him the news (and the cause of the defeat, of course), which the advisor passed on to the king. The king was so terrified that he abandoned the capital and fled south, becoming subsequently known as "The King Who Fled From the Chinese" (again, I forget the precise name of the king, but the events are historical). It stikes me as pretty clever to have a nat deliver the bad news to the king, as well as take some blame for the defeat. Otherwise the unfortunate (human) messenger, and likely the commanders of the army, would have probably lost their heads. You can't much complain if a nat is involved, though.