He was the eldest son of Princess Myat Phaya Galay and the grandson of King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat.

[1] During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese government retained Burma within its empire but hoped to make Taw Phaya Gyi the country's puppet ruler, putting him under military guard and plotting to assassinate Burma's prime minister Ba Maw.

Before leaving Bangkok, Taw Phaya Gyi signed a decree as the 12th King of Konbaung to release Burmese prisoners held in Moulmein by the Japanese.

In April 1948, on his way to Maymyo on a business trip, he was assassinated at Tatkon in Central Burma by Communist insurgents, who mistook him for a police officer.

[2] In 1945 he married his first wife Khin Kyi in Rangoon - she was Ba Maw's niece and later became the first Burmese woman to earn a master's degree in sports.