Taungdaw Thakhinma, meaning mistress of the great mountain, is a Burmese nat and guardian spirit of Mount Thakhinma, also known as Mount Yinkhet or Mount Ma Ma U, venerated today as a symbol of unwavering love whose worshippers pray at her shrine for fortune in their own relationships. Legend holds that she was born Ma Shwe U, a weaver renowned for her beauty who married the timber merchant Ko Yin Maung after refusing a proposal from the nat Shwe Hpyin Nyidaw, already recorded in this same wave; spurned, he later had his tiger kill her, after which she entered the pantheon of Burmese nats as the mountain's guardian, and her husband, dying of grief at her death, became a nat in his own right. A flower-picking festival is still held at Mount Thakhinma each year, and her shrines stand at the mountain, at Taungbyone village and on the northern stairway of Mandalay Hill.
Facts
Attestation
Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 1 HistoricityNot a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 1 Function
Domain / Function Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: many gods 1 Sources
1. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend
Anthony S. Mercatante, revised and expanded by James R. Dow, Facts on File
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