Pagan Kingdom

21°10′20″N 94°51′37″E / 21.17222°N 94.86028°E / 21.17222; 94.86028

Kingdom of Pagan ပုဂံခေတ်
849–1297
Pagan Empire c. 1210. Pagan Empire during Sithu II's reign. Kengtung and Chiang Mai are also claimed to be part of the Empire according to the Burmese chronicles. Pagan incorporated key ports of Lower Burma into its core administration by the 13th century.
Status	Kingdom
Capital	Pagan (Bagan) (849–1297)
Common languages	Old Burmese, Mon, Pyu
Religion	Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Hinduism, Animism
Government	Monarchy
• 1044–77	Anawrahta
• 1084–1112	Kyansittha
• 1112–67	Sithu I
• 1174–1211	Sithu II
• 1256–87	Narathihapate
Legislature	None (rule by decree) (before King Htilominlo) Hluttaw (after King Htilominlo)
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Burmese calendar begins	23 March 640
• Founding of Kingdom	23 December 849
• creation of Burmese alphabet	984 and 1035
• Pagan Empire founded	1050s–60s
• Peak	1174–1250
• First Mongol invasions	1277–87
• Myinsaing takeover	17 December 1297
• Final Mongol invasion	1300–01
Population
• c. 1210	1.5 to 2 million
Currency	silver kyat
Preceded by Succeeded by Pyu city-states Mon city-states Lemro dynasty Myinsaing Kingdom Hanthawaddy Kingdom Lemro dynasty Shan States

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History of Myanmar
Prehistory of Myanmar 11,000–200 BCE Pyu city-states 200 BCE – 1050 CE (Sri Ksetra Kingdom, Tagaung Kingdom) Mon kingdoms 825?–1057? CE (Thaton Kingdom) Arakanese kingdoms 788?–1406
Pagan Kingdom 849–1297 Early Pagan Kingdom 849–1044 Warring states period Upper Myanmar 1297–1555 Myinsaing and Pinya Kingdoms 1297–1365 Sagaing Kingdom 1315–1365 Kingdom of Ava 1365–1555 Prome Kingdom 1482–1542 Hanthawaddy Kingdom 1287–1539, 1550–1552 Shan States 1215–1563 Kingdom of Mrauk U 1429–1785 Toungoo dynasty 1510–1752 First Toungoo Empire 1510–1599 Nyaungyan Restoration 1599–1752 Restored Hanthawaddy 1740–1757 Konbaung dynasty 1752–1885
British colonial period 1824–1948 Anglo-Burmese Wars 1824–1885 Resistance movement 1885–1895 Nationalist movement 1900–1948 Japanese occupation 1942–1945
Modern era 1948–present AFPFL government 1948–1962 Ne Win dictatorship 1962–1988 SLORC / SPDC junta 1988–2010 Political reforms 2011–2015 SAC junta 2021–present
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The Kingdom of Pagan (Burmese: ပုဂံခေတ်, pronounced [bəɡàɰ̃ kʰɪʔ], lit. 'Pagan Period'; also known as the Pagan dynasty and the Pagan Empire; also the Bagan dynasty or Bagan Empire) was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-day Myanmar. Pagan's 250-year rule over the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery laid the foundation for the ascent of Burmese language and culture, the spread of Bamar ethnicity in Upper Myanmar, and the growth of Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar and in mainland Southeast Asia.^[1]

The kingdom grew out of a small 9th-century settlement at Pagan (present-day Bagan) by the Mranma/Burmans. Over the next two hundred years, the small principality gradually grew to absorb its surrounding regions until the 1050s and 1060s when King Anawrahta founded the Pagan Empire, presumably for the first time unifying under one polity the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. By the late 12th century, Anawrahta's successors had extended their influence farther to the south into the upper Malay Peninsula, to the east at least to the Salween river, in the farther north to below the current China border, and to the west, in northern Arakan and the Chin Hills.^[2][3] In the 12th and 13th centuries, Pagan, alongside the Khmer Empire, was one of two main empires in mainland Southeast Asia.^[4]

The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu, Mon and Pali norms by the late 12th century. Theravada Buddhism slowly began to spread to the village level although Tantric, Mahayana, Brahmanic, and animist practices remained heavily entrenched at all social strata. Pagan's rulers built over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Bagan Archaeological Zone of which over 2000 remain. The wealthy donated tax-free land to religious authorities.^[5]

The kingdom went into decline in the mid-13th century as the continuous growth of tax-free religious wealth by the 1280s had severely 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 the Arakanese, Mons, Mongols and Shans. Repeated Mongol invasions (1277–1301) toppled the four-century-old kingdom in 1287. The collapse was followed by 250 years of political fragmentation that lasted well into the 16th century.^[6][7]