Shwe Hpyin Nyidaw is one of Burma’s official Thirty-Seven Nats, and with his elder brother Shwe Hpyin Naungdaw he is the subject of Myanmar’s largest nat festival, the six-day Taungbyone festival. Because their father Byatta is believed to have been an Indian Muslim, worshippers avoid pork. The brothers were warriors and infiltrators who served King Anawrahta of Bagan.
The two were executed for neglecting their duty to lay one brick each for Taungbyone Pagoda, and after death, as spirits, they were granted dominion over the land by the king. That executed men should return as vengeful yet enshrined gods holding the land shares a register with our world — the ended one who does not end but stays to inherit the place.