Service
Later in his youth, Yit moved to Amarapura, then the kingdom's capital, to serve as the lowest grade retainer in the royal service of Crown Prince Thado Minsaw, who had his hometown Dababyin in fief. Stockily built and loud—based on his body armor, his height is estimated to be about 173 cm or 5′ 8″—Yit proved a quick study in martial arts, horseback riding and war elephant riding, and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming one of the crown prince's personal bodyguards in 1806. It was here as a royal bodyguard that Yit became exposed to military arts, receiving a further education in military strategy and tactics.
However Yit's rising career ran into a stall when Thado Minsaw died in April 1808. While he continued to be part of the Palace Guards, Yit was no longer in the inner circle of the new crown prince, the Prince of Sagaing. Yit dutifully served for the next four years in the background but still was not noticed. Deeply frustrated, Yit made a bold move to be noticed one day in late 1812, (soon after the second son of the crown prince was born on 27 October 1812): he punched a fellow palace guardsman Nanda Bala for no apparent reason. Duly arrested and brought before the crown prince, Yit explained that he just wanted to be called "Nga Yit" by the crown prince just once, and that he would gladly go to prison for his behavior. Impressed by Yit's bold behavior, the crown prince pardoned Yit and made him a messenger in his Privy Council (ဗြဲတိုက် သံဆင့်). Yit did not disappoint. In about six months, in June 1813 (Nayon 1175 ME), he was appointed governor of his hometown Dabayin with the title of Ne Myo Thura Yegaung (နေမျိုး သူရ ရဲခေါင်).
In the next decade, Yit would participate in the expansionist wars of King Bodawpaya and his successor King Bagyidaw.
Read more about this topic: Maha Bandula
Famous quotes containing the word service:
“Let not the tie be mercenary, though the service is measured in money. Make yourself necessary to somebody. Do not make life hard to any.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“The more the specific feelings of being under obligation range themselves under a supreme principle of human dependence the clearer and more fertile will be the realization of the concept, indispensable to all true culture, of service; from the service of God down to the simple social relationship as between employer and employee.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)