page_title: History of Myanmar
section_title: Pagan Empire (1044–1297)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Myanmar / Pagan Dynasty (849–1297) / Pagan Empire (1044–1297)
caption_attribution_description: English: Kingdom of Pagan at Sithu II's reign circa 1200 Based on Lieberman (2003), pp. 91-92 and Aung-Thwin (1985), p. 100. There is a little mistake in this map. In 1200, in North-East, that's no more en:Nanzhao (737 — 937), but instead, en:Dali Kingdom (937 – 1253). Français&#160;: Royaume de Pagan sous le régne de Sithu II, aux environs de 1200. D'après Lieberman (2003), p. 91-92 et Aung-Thwin (1985), p. 100. Il y a un anachronisme dans cette carte. En 1200, au Nord-Est, ça n'est plus le fr:Royaume de Nanzhao (737 — 937), mais le fr:Royaume de Dali (937 – 1253).
context_page_description: The history of Myanmar covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 13,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history were a Tibeto-Burman-speaking people who established the Pyu city-states ranged as far south as Pyay and adopted Theravada Buddhism.
  In the middle of 9th century, pyu cities were organised into kingdom, and established as the Pagan Kingdom, the first-ever unification of the Burmese kingdom. The Pyu language and Pyu culture slowly came to change and known as Burmese language and culture during this period. After the First Mongol invasion of Burma in 1287, several small kingdoms, of which the Kingdom of Ava, the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, the Kingdom of Mrauk U and the Shan States were principal powers, came to dominate the landscape, replete with ever-shifting alliances and constant wars.
  In the second half of the 16th century, the Taungoo dynasty reunified the country, and founded the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia for a brief period.
context_section_description: Over the next 30 years, Anawrahta founded the Pagan Kingdom, unifying for the first time the regions that would later constitute the modern-day Burma. Anawrahta's successors by the late 12th century had extended their influence farther south into the upper Malay Peninsula, at least to the Salween River in the east, below the current China border in the farther north, and to the west, northern Arakan and the Chin Hills. The Burmese Chronicles claim Pagan's suzerainty over the entire Chao Phraya Valley, and the Thai chronicles include the lower Malay Peninsula down to the Strait of Malacca to Pagan's realm.
  By the early 12th century, Pagan had emerged as a major power alongside the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia, recognised by Song China and the Chola dynasty of India. Well into the mid-13th century, most of mainland Southeast Asia was under some degree of control of either the Pagan Empire or the Khmer Empire.
  Anawrahta also implemented a series of key social, religious and economic reforms that would have a lasting impact in Burmese history. His social and religious reforms later developed into the modern-day culture of Burma. The most important development was the introduction of Theravada Buddhism to Upper Burma after Pagan's conquest of the Thaton Kingdom in 1057. Supported by royal patronage, the Buddhist school gradually spread to the village level in the next three centuries although Vajrayana Buddhist, Mahayana, Hindu, and animism remained heavily entrenched at all social strata.
  Pagan's economy was primarily based on the Kyaukse agricultural basin northeast of the capital, and Minbu, south of Bagan, where the Bamars had built a large number of new weirs and diversionary canals. It also benefited from external trade through its coastal ports. The wealth of the kingdom was devoted to building over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Pagan capital zone between 11th and 13th centuries (of which 3000 remain to the present day). The wealthy donated tax-free land to religious authorities.
  The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu and Pali norms by the late 12th century. By then, the Bamar leadership of the kingdom was unquestioned. The Pyu had largely assumed the Bamar ethnicity in Upper Burma. The Burmese language, once an alien tongue, was now the lingua franca of the kingdom.
  The kingdom went into decline in the 13th century as the continuous growth of tax-free religious wealth—by the 1280s, two-thirds of Upper Burma's cultivable land had been alienated to the religion—affected the crown's ability to retain the loyalty of courtiers and military servicemen. This ushered in a vicious circle of internal disorders and external challenges by Mons, Mongols and Shans.
  Beginning in the early 13th century, the Shan began to encircle the Pagan Empire from the north and the east. The Mongols, who had conquered Yunnan, the former homeland of the Bamar, in 1253, began their invasion in 1277, and in 1287 sacked Pagan, ending the Pagan Kingdom's 250-year rule of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. Pagan's rule of central Burma came to an end ten years later in 1297 when it was toppled by the Myinsaing Kingdom.
caption: Pagan Kingdom during Narapatisithu's reign. Burmese chronicles also claim Kengtung and Chiang Mai. Core areas shown in darker yellow. Peripheral areas in light yellow. Pagan incorporated key ports of Lower Burma into its core administration by the 13th century.
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