Sagaing Kingdom

Sagaing was a small kingdom in Upper Myanmar ruled by a junior branch of the Myinsaing dynasty. It began as the northern province of the Pinya kingdom. In 1315 Prince Saw Yun, the eldest son of King Thihathu, left the court after being denied a command and rebuilt Sagaing's walls in brick. Two royal expeditions failed to dislodge him, and the kingdom formally split from Pinya after Thihathu's death in 1325. Sagaing survived for four decades mainly because Pinya was torn by its own dynastic feuds. From the mid-1330s the chief minister Nanda Pakyan controlled a succession of weak kings, while the dowager Queen Saw Hnaung protected Saw Yun's children. In the 1350s Princess Soe Min repaired relations with Pinya against the Shan state of Maw, but Maw invasions broke through in 1364 and sacked both capitals. Saw Yun's grandson Thado Minbya seized the ruins, reunited Sagaing and Pinya, and founded the Ava kingdom in 1365.