# May Oung
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{{Short description|Burmese jurist and politician}}
{{expand Burmese|မေအောင်၊ ဦး (စွယ်စုံပညာရှင်)|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix =
| name = May Oung
| native_name = {{nobold|{{lang|my|မေအောင်}}}}
| native_name_lang = my
| honorific_suffix =
| image =
| office = [Minister of Home Affairs of British Burma](/source/Ministry_of_Home_Affairs_(Myanmar))
| term_start = 1924[{{cite book |last1=Kyaw |first1=Aye |title=The Voice of Young Burma |date=2018|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9781501719349|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VFpdDwAAQBAJ&q=May+Oung+minister&pg=PA64 |language=en}}]
| term_end = 5 June 1926
| minister =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| office2 = Minister of High Court of British Burma
| term_start2 = 1922
| term_end2 = 1924
| birth_date = {{birth date|1880|1|6|df=y}}
| birth_place = [Sittwe](/source/Sittwe)
| death_date = {{death date and age|1926|6|5|1880|1|6|df=y}}
| death_place = [Maymyo](/source/Maymyo), [Burma](/source/British_Burma), [British India](/source/British_India)
| party =
| alma_mater = [University of Cambridge](/source/University_of_Cambridge)
| parents = Tha Do Phyu (father)
Hnaung Dway (mother)
| spouse = Thein Mya
| occupation = Legal scholar, Judge, Politician
| relations =
| children = Tha Doe Oung
Tun Hla Oung
[Mya Sein](/source/Mya_Sein)
}}
'''May Oung''' ({{langx|my|မေအောင်}}, also spelt '''May Aung'''; 6 January 1880 - 5 June 1926) was a Burmese legal scholar, judge and politician who served as [Minister of Home Affairs](/source/Ministry_of_Home_Affairs_(Myanmar)) during the colonial era. He was known for his expertise in Burmese Buddhist law and one of the founders of the [Young Men's Buddhist Association Burma](/source/Young_Men's_Buddhist_Association_(Burma)). Scholars view him as a symbol of the early rise of Burmese nationalism.[{{Citation |title=5. Burmese Buddhist Exceptionalism |date=2024-12-31 |work=InterAsian Intimacies across Race, Religion, and Colonialism |pages=104–124 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501777158-009/html |access-date=2025-05-11 |publisher=Cornell University Press |doi=10.1515/9781501777158-009 |isbn=978-1-5017-7715-8|url-access=subscription }}] May Oung was the first law professor at [Yangon University](/source/Yangon_University).
==Early life and education==
May Oung was born on 6 January 1880 in [Sittwe](/source/Sittwe) to parents Tha Do Phyu and Hnaung Dway, the second eldest of three sons. The family was of [Arakanese descent](/source/Rakhine_people).[{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tyiFCwAAQBAJ&q=%22may+oung%22&pg=PT80|title=British Burma in the New Century, 1895–1918|last=Keck|first=Stephen L.|date=2015-10-06|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781137364333|language=en}}]
==Career==
He was one of only two Burmese judges appointed to the [High Court](/source/High_Court_Building_(Yangon)) when it was established by the British administration in 1922.[{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_H4WBAAAQBAJ&q=%22may+oung%22&pg=PA17|title=A Twentieth Century Burmese Matriarch|last=Oung|first=Kin Thida|date=2007|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=9780557102297|language=en}}]
From 1924 to 1926, he served as the home member on the [Legislative Council](/source/Legislative_Council_of_Burma), one of the highest positions available to Burmese under British rule.