Shin Bo-Me or Shin Bo-Meh ( ,, ; also spelled Shin Bo-Mai) was a principal queen of four kings of Ava in the early 15th century.
Brief Considered a great beauty, Bo-Me was the favorite queen of Minkhaung I.Harvey 1925: 93–96 She was also a half-niece of Minkhaung; her mother Saw Salaka Dewi and Minkhaung were half-siblings.Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 373 Although the Hmannan Yazawin chronicle states she became the chief queen of Minkhaung in 1407/08,Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 486 an inscription dated 28 February 1409 by Queen Shin Saw states that Saw was still the chief queen in 1409.Than Tun 1959: 125–126 She was also the favorite queen of Minkhaung's son and successor Thihathu until Shin Saw Pu became queen. In August 1425, Bo-Me engineered the death of Thihathu by getting Le Than Bwa of Onbaung to assassinate the king. She might have married the successor, eight-year-old Min Hla.(Harvey 1925: 97) says Mohnyin Thado was her "fifth crowned consort". But the chronicles do not say that Bo-Me ever married the 8-year-old Min Hla; they say only that she had him poisoned. Three months later, she poisoned the boy king and put her lover Prince Min Nyo on the Ava throne, and became the chief queen.Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 57–58 In May 1426, Nyo was overthrown by Gov. Thado of Mohnyin, who subsequently made Bo-Me a junior queen.Htin Aung 1967: 93–94
Ancestry The following is her ancestry as given in the Hmannan Yazawin chronicle.See (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 372). Her mother, Salaka Dewi, may have married more than once—(Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 404). Salaka Dewi, daughter of Swa Saw Ke was married to Sithu of Myinsaing—or Salaka Dewi's husband had two titles over his career, Sithu and Theinkhathu. She was a granddaughter of King Swa Saw Ke of Ava, and Kyawswa I of Pinya, and a great granddaughter of King Thihathu of Pinya and King Kyawswa of Pagan.
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