Taw Phaya Galay

Prince Taw Phaya Galay Aung Zay ( ; 30 July 1926 – 18 June 2006) was a Burmese prince, businessman and politician. He was one of the senior members of the Royal House of Konbaung and the grandson of King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat.

Taw Phaya Glay was also known as a historian for writing books about the descendants of King Thibaw and writing a manifesto demanding that the British return the royal gems and jewellery taken on the annexation of the country.

Early life and education

Taw Phaya Galay was born on 30 July 1926 in Rangoon, British Burma to parent Ko Ko Naing, a former monk and Princess Myat Phaya Galay who was the fourth daughter of King Thibaw and Chief Queen Supayalat. He attended St Patrick School in Moulmein and later moved to St Paul School in Yangon. Later, he left St Paul to attend the famous national school Myoma Kyaung. He failed his 1946 matriculation examination. He later took as his name U Thant Zin although royal family members did not use the U and Daw prefixes. He and his siblings were under the supervision of the British government and could not travel freely. Taw Paya Galay's three brothers were well known and much admired for their efforts to foster sports and culture through youth clubs during the Japanese occupation during World War II.

Business career In 1948, he established and served as a director of the Thibaw Commercial Syndicate, one of the few at the time that were truly owned by the Myanmar, for most companies were owned by Indian entrepreneurs with Myanmar citizens as a front. By the late 1950s the Thibaw Commercial Syndicate Ltd was exporting lacquer sap to Japan and imperial Jade to Hong Kong, with branch offices in each of those places. He often flew to Tokyo and Hong Kong to oversee sales, and by the early 1960s his business was booming, with export contracts in rice worth K30 million. In 1950s, he established the Union of Burma Exporters Oriental Corporation also becoming its director. Between 1955 and 1957, he served as an organizer at the Headquarters, Trade Union Congress (Burma) (TUCB). However, General Ne Win took power in Burma in a coup d’état, and Taw Paya Galay's company, along with all others, was nationalised.

During the countrywide uprising against the socialist regime in 1988, he became a patron of a powerful political assembly known "A Myo Thar Naing Ngan Yay Tat Paung Su" (Ma-Ma-Ta National Political Front). As a result, he was sent back to Insein Prison in 1989 at the age of 63, and was released in 1992.

Personal life In 1945, he married Khin May. Their only child Devi Thant Sin is a prominent environmentalist.