Who stole Buddhist Burma's royal ruby?

Magazine (bbc.com); MN; Andrew Winn, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Hmm, did England (the British) steal Buddhist Burma's treasured ruby? (myanmars.net)

The world-famous Shwedagon Pagoda housing the Buddha's hair relics, Rangoon, Burma

 

Who stole Burma's royal ruby?

Asian Hitler: Dictator Gen. Than Shwe

When Britain [UK] conquered Buddhist Burma [which its current dictator and his military junta -- who secretly rule from their secretive new capital of Naypyidaw after changing the country name to Myanmar, while Aung San Suu Kyi takes all the heat with no political power but a bully pulpit she dare not use for fear of being deposed or assassinated -- control from behind the scenes directing the military to commit genocide on Rakhine state's Muslim minority Rohingya, whom Suu Kyi calls "foreigners" and "Bengalis"], the last king's most treasured possession -- an enormous, priceless ruby -- disappeared. Who took it, where did it go, and where is it now? More

We found it!

Nga Mauk ruby on British Crown

The reign of the last Burmese royals lasted just seven years when King Thibaw Min was defeated in the Third Anglo-Burmese War and forced to abdicate by the British in 1885.

On November 25, 1885 they were taken away in a covered carriage, leaving Mandalay Palace by the southern gate of the walled city along the streets lined by British soldiers and their wailing subjects, to the River Irrawaddy where a steamboat called Thuriya (the "Sun" or Suriya) awaited. King Thibaw was 27 and Queen Supayalat 26.

The Lady who would be queen of Burma

Queen Supayalat never lost her composure and was said to have asked a British soldier by the wayside for a light to smoke a Burmese cheroot [country cigarette]. She was pregnant and accompanied by her husband, their two daughters, her two sisters, and her mother; the rest of their party followed on foot.

Our superheroine gone bad

The troops had nicknamed her "Soup Plate," and in the commotion and haste that attended their abduction, some of the crown jewels disappeared including a large ruby called Nga Mauk that Colonel Sladen had insisted on being handed over for safekeeping.

King Thibaw saw an opportunity in 1911 when King George V visited India, and he wrote for the return of the Burmese crown jewels.

Tell them you happy, Suu Kyi, we not kill you.

But he only received a reply that Col. Sladen had died in 1890. Nga Mauk was believed to have subsequently turned up as the largest ruby on the British crown [pure pirate booty from amazing Asia]; it was recognized by Princess of Kyundaung in whose charge the ruby used to be... More

• Could it have been the British royals?
• Share this with Facebook