Mingyi Nyo (Burmese: မင်းကြီးညို; also spelled Minkyi-nyo; pronounced [mɪ́ɰ̃dʑíɲò]; 1459–1530) was the founder of the Toungoo dynasty of Burma (Myanmar).
[note 2] He was likely about eleven or twelve years old when his entire family moved to Toungoo with Sithu Kyawhtin's appointment as viceroy.
[note 3] After assassinating his uncle and seizing the viceroyship, Nyo sent a present of two young elephants to King Minkhaung II of Ava.
[5] Mingyi Nyo, now styled as Thiri Zeya Thura, eagerly assisted Ava in its fight against Yamethin.
With Ava chiefly preoccupied by Yamethin, Nyo grew more confident and on 11 November 1491[note 4] built a new fortified city called Dwayawaddy (still near Toungoo), at the estuary of the rivers Kabaung and Paunglaung.
Taking advantage of the chaos in the southern kingdom, Nyo sent a probing raid into the territory of Hanthawaddy without Minkhaung II's permission.
In late 1495, Binnya Ran II sent in a combined land and naval force of 16,000, which ultimately laid siege to the new built Dwayawaddy itself.
Nyo, though still loyal to Minkhaung, nonetheless accepted about a thousand Yamethin rebels, who fled to Toungoo after their leader died in August 1500.
Despite Nyo's thinly veiled insurrection, the new king wanted to retain Toungoo's loyalty as he faced a new even more pressing problem of Shan raids from the north.
In 1502, he bribed Nyo by giving him his first cousin Min Hla Htut (styled as Thiri Maha Sanda Dewi)[9] for marriage and the Kyaukse granary, the most valuable region in Upper Burma.
At his coronation ceremony on 11 April 1511, he was crowned king with the regnal title of Maha Thiri Zeya Thura Dhamma Yaza Dipadi.
After the formal declaration of independence, Nyo largely stayed out of the endemic warfare between Ava and the Confederation of Shan States that consumed much of Upper Burma between 1501 and 1527.
Toungoo's remote location (nestled between the Bago Yoma mountain range and the Karen Hill country, and cut off from the main Irrawaddy river valley) proved a vital advantage.