death_place religion successor color location nationality title students article_title lineage background school name occupation
pagan buddhism shin panthagu black pagan burmese sayadaw shin panthagu shin arahan
 conjeveram-thaton #ffd 068 theravada shin arahan buddhist monk
shin arahan

the venerable shin arahan -lrb- ; formally , dhammadassi mahathera , ; 1034 -- 1115 -rrb- was primate of the pagan kingdom from 1056 to 1115 .
the monk , a native of thaton kingdom , was the religious adviser to four pagan kings from anawrahta to alaungsithu .
he is credited with converting anawrahta to theravada buddhism , and overseeing the subsequent reformation of the buddhist school throughout the kingdom .
however , evidence strongly suggests that the theravada buddhism of shin arahan and early pagan was one strongly influenced by hinduism as compared to later more orthodox standards .
within 75 years of shin arahan 's death , the buddhism of pagan would be realigned with the mahavihara school of ceylon although his conjeveram-thaton school lasted 200 more years before finally dying out .
nonetheless , his conversion of anawrahta is viewed as a key turning point in the history of theravada buddhism .
the powerful king 's embrace greatly helped stabilize the buddhist school , which had hitherto been in retreat elsewhere in south and southeast asia .
the success of pagan empire made the buddhist school 's later spread in mainland southeast asia in the 13th and 14th centuries possible .
