The earliest extant reference to the sand pagoda building tradition is in Burmese literary works, namely a "pyo" verse poem composed by Shin Maha Silavamsa during the Kingdom of Ava (c. 1500s). By contrast, Burmese oral tradition attributes the custom of building sand pagodas to the arrival of Ayutthayan royals, advisors and their retinue in the Konbaung Kingdom, which occurred two centuries later, following the fall of Ayutthaya in the Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767). The custom was practiced throughout the kingdom in pre-colonial Burma, including by the royal court.