U Ya

U Ya (Burmese: ဦးယာ, also known as E' Maung Ya (Burmese: အဲမောင်ယာ) was a court poet known for his Tabaung Lapwe e' ching.

U Ya
Native name	ဦးယာ
Born	c. 1748 Burma (present day Myanmar)
Died	1785
Occupation	Poet, court official
Period	Konbaung Dynasty
Genre	E' poetry, yadu

Life

U Ya was born circa 1748. He gained prominence during the reigns of King Singu and Bodawpaya due to his significant contributions to the e' ching genre of poetry.^[1][2]

In 1776, during the reign of King Singu, U Yar was honored with the title of Nemyo Min Hla Kyaw Thu and serving as Akyidaw (အကြီးတော်; lit.the Venerable Senior) of second Queen of Northern Palace. From that time, he composed numerous yadu (poems) and E' (ballads) and authored the work Nyidaw Min Nan pyot.^[3]

After the dethroning of King Singu, Bodawpaya ascended the throne in 1781, U Yar wrote and composed the 12-season lu tar [my] (a form of poetry) on the establishment of the royal capital, Amarapura. Impressed by his literary talents, Bodawpaya entrusted him with duties at the office of the Crown Prince. Later, U Yar was appointed to the position of Kuan yaydaw kine [my] (the official responsible for offering water to the king) and subsequently became the governor of Martaban.^[4][5]

In 1785, U Yar died.^[6][7]

References

1. "ဦးယာ Books". elibrary-demo.origin.com.mm. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
2. "Myanmar Bookshop - Myanmar Books - List". www.myanmarbookshop.com. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
3. "ဦးယာ". PoemsCorner. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
4. "ဦးယာ Books". elibrary-demo.origin.com.mm. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
5. "Wun Zinn Myanmar E Book Store". www.wunzinn.com. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
6. မြန်မာကဗျားရွေးချယ်ချက်နှင့် ရတုရွေးချယ်ချက် H 594_ A (ဟံသာဝတီ)
7. "ကဆုန်လ စာအလင်္ကာများ". MDN - Myanmar DigitalNews (in Burmese). Retrieved 2 August 2025.