King Mindon

King Mindon Min was born on July 8, 1808. Assuming the throne in 1853 following the disastrous Second Anglo-Burmese War that saw the British seize Lower Burma, Mindon dedicated his 25-year reign to preserving upper Burma's sovereignty through diplomatic modernization and internal reform.

In 1857, he fulfilled a Buddhist prophecy by founding the royal palace-city of Mandalay. A devout Buddhist monarch, he convened the historic Fifth Buddhist Council in 1871, commissioning 729 marble slabs inscribed with the entire Pali Buddhist Canon at Kuthodaw Pagoda—recognized as the 'World's Largest Book'. He established factories, modernized tax collection, and sent diplomatic scholars to Europe.