Min Saw Hla
Quick Facts
Biography
Min Saw Hla (Burmese: မင်းစောလှ, [mɪ́ɴ sɔ́ l̥a̰]; 1532–1564) was king of Arakan from 1556 to 1564. At accession, he made his first wife Saw Bon-Htut the chief queen but also married his father's chief queen Saw Thanda. He ordered a massive building program which built and repaired dams, irrigation canals as well as improved the defenses of Mrauk-U and other key towns around the kingdom. In 1561, he commissioned the building of Htukkanthein Temple.
He tightened control of Chittagong and the kingdom's northern perimeter. In the early 1560s, he sent the army to Tripura, whose ruler, according to Arakanese chronicles, submitted to Mrauk-U. He died in 1564 after a long illness. He had chosen his half-brother Min Sekkya to succeed him, and married Sekkya to his own full sister Dhamma Dewi.