Chit Hlaing ( my, ချစ်လှိုင်, 1879 – 31 October 1952) was a notable Burmese politician. During his time, he was called a Burmese king without a crown, and was popular in rural Burma. He was imprisoned when the British Crown

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the ruler ...

(who later became

King Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 19 ...

) visited Burma in 1921. He was born in

Moulmein Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at th ...

(now Mawlamyaing), the son of rich

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...

merchant U Thar Nyin. At age 20, he left for Britain to study law. After he graduated, he returned to Moulmein to help found the Y.M.B.A. (''

Young Men's Buddhist Association The YMBA, or Young Men's Buddhist Association, was created in Sri Lanka in 1898. The main founder was C. S. DissanayakeHuman Rights Watch (2009)''The Resistance of the Monks: Buddhism and Activism in Burma'' p. 12. as part of a bid to provide Budd ...

''). In 1911 he unsuccessfully defended

U Dhammaloka U Dhammaloka ( my, ဦးဓမ္မလောက; c. 1856 – c. 1914) was an Irish-born migrant worker turned Buddhist monk, strong critic of Christian missionaries, and temperance campaigner who took an active role in the Asian Buddhist ...

, the "Irish Buddhist", in his trial for sedition. He also helped fund the GCBA, acting as its chairman for a number of years, to such an extent that he had become a debt fugitive by 1932. In 1937, as president of the Burmese House, Chit Hlaing attended the ceremony of King George VI's coronation in England. He was elected president of the law council and consultant of the Burmese Chancellor during World War II. After the war, he was elected a Member of Parliament until his death in 1952 in

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. His sister Hnin Mya was the first woman to become a member of the Legislative Council.''The Indian Annual Register Volume II: July-Dec. 1932'', p203

References

* 1879 births 1952 deaths Burmese prisoners and detainees Members of Pyithu Hluttaw People from Mawlamyine {{Myanmar-bio-stub