{ "id": "epxpn60sgk", "slug": "u-po-hlaing", "title": "U Po Hlaing", "updated": "2026-10-25", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history" }, { "id": "society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.southeast-asia", "label": "Southeast Asia", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.southeast-asia" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.southeast-asia.mm-konbaung", "label": "Burma under the Konbaung dynasty and British Burma, including the three Anglo-Burmese wars (1752 to 1945)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.southeast-asia.mm-konbaung" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.southeast-asia.mm-konbaung", "label": "Asia (other) · 1800 to 1945: Burma under the Konbaung dynasty and British Burma, including the three Anglo-Burmese wars (1752 to 1945)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.southeast-asia.mm-konbaung", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800", "label": "Asia (other) · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society.history" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.southeast-asia", "label": "Southeast Asia", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.southeast-asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.southeast-asia.mm-konbaung", "label": "Burma under the Konbaung dynasty and British Burma, including the three Anglo-Burmese wars (1752 to 1945)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.southeast-asia.mm-konbaung" } ] } ], "excerpt": "U Po Hlaing, also written U Hpo Hlaing or U Boe Hlaing, was a minister, judge, and political theorist of Burma's late Konbaung dynasty, serving Kings Mindon and Thibaw.", "snippet": "U Po Hlaing, also written U Hpo Hlaing or U Boe Hlaing, was a minister, judge, and political theorist of Burma's late Konbaung dynasty, serving Kings Mindon and Thibaw.", "node": "society.history.asia.southeast-asia.mm-konbaung", "markdown": "# U Po Hlaing\n\nU Po Hlaing, also written U Hpo Hlaing or U Boe Hlaing, was a minister, judge, and political theorist of the late Konbaung dynasty of Burma, active at the courts of King Mindon and King Thibaw.[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637) • [2](https://eng.mizzima.com/2026/07/20/36537) • [3](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/hpo-hlaing-on-buddhist-law1/880E1D5AF736AC03E8B40D8DD0BEBF4B) He is known above all for the *Rajadhammasangaha*, a work of political theory, and for a career-long attempt to adapt European constitutionalist ideas to a Buddhist model of rulership.[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637) • [4](https://www.buildmyanmarmedia.com/myanmars-first-democratic-text-the-rajadhammasangaha/) Contemporaries and later scholars rank him as Burma's leading political philosopher of his time.[3](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/hpo-hlaing-on-buddhist-law1/880E1D5AF736AC03E8B40D8DD0BEBF4B)\n\n| Fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Role | Minister, judge, and political theorist of the late Konbaung court[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637) |\n| Rulers served | King Mindon and King Thibaw[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637) • [2](https://eng.mizzima.com/2026/07/20/36537) |\n| Principal work | *Rajadhammasangaha*[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637) • [4](https://www.buildmyanmarmedia.com/myanmars-first-democratic-text-the-rajadhammasangaha/) |\n| Political aim | Cabinet arrangements binding the king, paving the way for a constitutional monarchy he hoped would save the country[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637) |\n| Manuscript | Palm-leaf manuscript of the *Rajadhammasangaha* held in the National Museum[4](https://www.buildmyanmarmedia.com/myanmars-first-democratic-text-the-rajadhammasangaha/) |\n\n## Career\n\nThe *Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies* published an English version, of a translator unknown, of U Po Hlaing's 1877 law report in 2010, noting that the judge's standing as Burma's leading political philosopher gives special resonance to his views on law.[3](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/hpo-hlaing-on-buddhist-law1/880E1D5AF736AC03E8B40D8DD0BEBF4B) The report lists five law reports from the Pali canon and related texts.[3](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/hpo-hlaing-on-buddhist-law1/880E1D5AF736AC03E8B40D8DD0BEBF4B)\n\nHis principal work, the *Rajadhammasangaha*, was addressed to [Thibaw Min](https://www.edgepedia.org/thibaw-min) on his taking the throne and was, in [Andrew Huxley](https://www.edgepedia.org/andrew-huxley)'s reading, an instruction manual for the new king to make cabinet arrangements that would bind him, paving the way for a constitutional monarchy that U Hpo Hlaing hoped would save the country from being lost to the British colonizers.[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637) The text responded to the increasing threat of British annexation of Upper Burma, and was written, in Huxley's phrase, \"in order to prevent the country being lost\".[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637)\n\n## Political influence\n\nU Hpo Hlaing was both a political activist and a political theorist, an influential minister and intellectual of the late Konbaung court.[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637) After Crown Prince Kanaung's assassination, Kanaung's aspirations became distant, and the *Rajadhammasangaha*, which emerged after Kanaung's death, remained just a text.[4](https://www.buildmyanmarmedia.com/myanmars-first-democratic-text-the-rajadhammasangaha/)\n\nHis lasting influence lies in his method. He ingeniously adapted European constitutionalist ideas into a pre-existing Buddhist model of rulership based on social contract, within the wider constitutionalist discourse of the region.[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637)\n\n## Historians' assessment\n\nScholars have treated U Hpo Hlaing's theory as an early indigenous political thought worth study on its own terms. U Htin Fatt, Bagshawe, and Huxley have discussed the context and purposes of the composition of the *Rajadhammasangaha*, including the necessity felt by a section of the late Konbaung courtiers to modernize governance by incorporating elements of western statecraft.[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637) His political theory is sometimes termed the \"native democracy\" of Burma and has triggered inquiries into non-Eurocentric, indigenous forms of democracy.[1](https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637)\n\nIn Mon Mon Myat's reading, he was \"a kind of very early political theorist in Myanmar\", working during the reigns of Mindon and Thibaw to give Burmese rulers a framework for accountable government before the monarchy collapsed under British conquest, drawing on Buddhist concepts while absorbing Western parliamentary ideas.[2](https://eng.mizzima.com/2026/07/20/36537) His \"Burma-native democracy\", as she frames it, was not a finished institutional design but a set of principles: rulers should be restrained by ethical responsibility, political authority should answer to something beyond personal power, and governance should be grounded in moral conduct.[2](https://eng.mizzima.com/2026/07/20/36537)\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe palm-leaf manuscript of U Boe Hlaing's *Rajadhammasangaha*, which indicates Myanmar's early democracy, resides in the National Museum.[4](https://www.buildmyanmarmedia.com/myanmars-first-democratic-text-the-rajadhammasangaha/) His 1877 law report survives in an English version and remains a source for the study of Buddhist law.[3](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/hpo-hlaing-on-buddhist-law1/880E1D5AF736AC03E8B40D8DD0BEBF4B)\n## References\n\n1. B. Bhattacharya, article on U Hpo Hlaing's Rajadhammasangaha, *Східний світ (The Orient World)*, 2023, № 2. https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/download/669/637\n2. Mon Mon Myat, \"Myanmar: Burden of Rule\", Mizzima. https://eng.mizzima.com/2026/07/20/36537\n3. \"Hpo Hlaing on Buddhist law\", *Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies*, Volume 73, Issue 2, June 2010, pp. 269–283. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/hpo-hlaing-on-buddhist-law1/880E1D5AF736AC03E8B40D8DD0BEBF4B\n4. \"Myanmar's First Democratic Text – The Rajadhammasangaha\", Build Myanmar Media. https://www.buildmyanmarmedia.com/myanmars-first-democratic-text-the-rajadhammasangaha/\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › Southeast Asia › Burma under the Konbaung dynasty and British Burma, including the three Anglo-Burmese wars (1752 to 1945)*\n\n*Initially written Sep 24, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/u-po-hlaing", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/u-po-hlaing.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"U Po Hlaing\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/u-po-hlaing. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[U Po Hlaing](https://www.edgepedia.org/u-po-hlaing)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/u-po-hlaing](https://www.edgepedia.org/u-po-hlaing). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"U Po Hlaing\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/u-po-hlaing. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "U Po Hlaing, also written U Hpo Hlaing or U Boe Hlaing, was a minister, judge, and political theorist of Burma's late Konbaung dynasty, serving Kings Mindon and Thibaw." }