Pegu Medaw (ပဲခူးမယ်တော်)

Burmese. ‘Royal Mother Pegu’. Name of a nat, whom previously was a female buffalo named Nankarine, who is said to have raised a prince who got lost in the wilderness. Later, the prince was found by some soldiers and returned to the palace, wherein the buffalo followed them and rammed through the palace gates to get to her stepchild. As a consequence, she was killed by the guards and became a nat. According to another version of this legend, Nankarine nursed two princes, namely the brothers Thamala and Wimala, the accepted founders of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, i.e. the later Pegu and present-day Bago. In iconography, she is depicted as a lady wearing a headdress fashioned as a buffalo head, sometimes two on top of each other. She is a Her name is pronounced Pegu Medo and she is also referred to as the buffalo nat, Bago Medaw, Nankarine Medaw (fig.), Buffalo Mother, Lady Buffalo, and Lady Buffalo of Pegu. See also LIST OF BURMESE NATS. 回