Born Khin Nyo, he was a childhood tutor of King Minkhaung I of Ava. Minkhaung appointed him governor of Toungoo in 1408/09 to replace Min Nemi, who had just died.[2][3]
His appointment came at the height of the Forty Years' War against the Hanthawaddy Kingdom. He commanded the Toungoo Regiment in the 1410–1412 campaigns of the war. During the war in early 1411, he was appointed governor of Launggyet, the capital of Arakan.[4][5][6] He was driven out of Launggyet a year later by a Hanthawaddy army.[7][5][8][9]
At Ava, Minkhaung moved Letya to Pyinzi because the king was concerned that Letya was getting too old to be governor of Toungoo, a frontier town, during the war.[1] He lost his Pyinzi post in 1426 when the new king Mohnyin Thado appointed his son-in-law Thihapate governor of Pyinzi.[10]
Sein Lwin Lay, Kahtika U (2006) [1968]. Min Taya Shwe Hti and Bayinnaung: Ketumadi Taungoo Yazawin (in Burmese) (2nd printing ed.). Yangon: Yan Aung Sarpay.