Princess Myat Phaya Gyi (; 5 September 1880 – 3 June 1947) was a Burmese royal princess and most senior member of the Royal House of Konbaung. She was the eldest daughter of the last ruling king of Burma, King Thibaw, and his queen Supayalat. After marrying a palace servant, the princess embarrassed the royal family, gave up her royal princess insignia, and lived a life of great poverty and extreme loneliness until her death. Her story is still interesting in Burmese history, where she is seen as a romantic hero and tragic figure who fell from being a royal princess of the golden palace to a pauper because of her strong love. Life Life in the royal palace Princess Myat Phaya Gyi was born on 5 September 1880, at the Royal Palace, Mandalay. She was King Thibaw's firstborn daughter by his chief queen, Supayalat. Several ceremonies were held after her birth to honor her royal rank, but the largest of all was the Dawthakarana (cradling) ceremony, in which she was placed in an emerald-studded cradle in front of the Bee Throne in the Glass Palace. Hundreds of magnificent gifts were brought to her, including valuable stones, pearls, jewelry, solid gold bowls, bolts of fine cloth, and so on. The Thonze Princess and the Taungzin Princess were chosen as her head nurses and second nurse, respectively, and numerous palace maids were appointed to assist them. When she was five years old, King Thibaw was defeated in the Third Anglo-Burmese War and forced to abdicate by the British in 1885. On 25 November 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 (Sun) awaited. They were exiled to the remote coastal town of Ratnagiri in India, where they lived for over 30 years. She did not receive any formal education. Life in Ratnagiri Myat Phaya Gyi fell in love with Gopal Bhaurao Sawant, an Indian palace gatekeeper, in 1906, when she was 26 years old, and had a child with him. At the time, he was already married. According to Hindu tradition, Gopal could not marry her because he already had a wife. For the embarrassed royal family, she was the black sheep. Her father was furious since it was