Narathihapate
| Narathihapate နရသီဟပတေ့ Sithu IV of Pagan |
|
|---|---|
| King of Burma | |
| Reign | 6 May 1256 – 1 July 1287 |
| Coronation | November 1256 |
| Predecessor | Uzana |
| Successor | Kyawswa |
| Chief Minister |
Yazathingyan (1256–57, 1258–60) Ananda Pyissi (c. 1271–87) |
| Born | 23 April 1238 Friday, 9th waxing of Kason 600 ME Pagan (Bagan) |
| Died | 1 July 1287 (aged 49) Tuesday, 5th waning of Waso 649 ME Prome (Pyay) |
| Consort |
Yadanabon (1256–62) Saw Hla Wun Saw Nan Shin Hpa Shin Mauk Shin Shwe Saw Lon |
| Issue |
Yazathu Uzana Pwa Saw Shin Thihathu Kyawswa Mi Saw U Sithu |
| House | Pagan |
| Father | Uzana |
| Mother | Su Le Htone |
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
Narathihapate (Burmese: နရသီဟပတေ့, pronounced: [nəɹa̰ θìha̰pətḛ]; 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 [Mongols]") for his flight from Pagan (Bagan) to Lower Burma 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 Burma. 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".
The future king was born to Crown Prince Uzana and a commoner concubine from Myittha on 23 April 1238.
For much of his early years, he was known at the palace as Min Khwe-Chi (lit. "Prince Dog's Dung") as a harmless royal. Even when his father became king in 1251, Khwe-Chi was not in line for the throne; the position belonged to his half-brother Thihathu, the eldest son of the chief queen Thonlula.
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