Pagan (Bagan) Kingdom

Overview

First Burmese empire, centered on Pagan (Bagan) on the Irrawaddy. Unified Upper and Lower Myanmar under Anawrahta (r. 1044-1077). Territorial peak under Narapatisithu (1174-1211) — Upper Burma to Bhamo, Lower Burma delta, Tenasserim to Mergui; Arakan and Shan hills tributary. Built ~10,000 Theravada temples (~2,200 survive) — UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mongol invasions 1277-1287 and monastic-land fiscal crisis led to collapse; Myinsaing coup ended the dynasty 17 December 1297.

Territory Phases

1. Pagan Kingdom (Early City-State)849 CE – 1050 CE

   Early Pagan as a small dry-zone principality, conventionally dated from 849 CE (the Glass Palace Chronicle records Pyinbya walling the city of Pagan, though the founding date is legendary). Territory was confined to the central Irrawaddy dry zone around Pagan, Kyaukse, Minbu and Prome (Pyay) — roughly 320 km north–south by 130 km east–west (Aung-Thwin). The old Pyu city-states (Sri Ksetra near Prome, Halin, Beikthano) had collapsed under Nanzhao pressure in the mid-9th century, leaving Upper Burma as a patchwork of Bamar-Pyu townships. Pagan itself was one of these, a minor successor polity rather than a unified kingdom.

2. Pagan Kingdom (Anawrahta Unification)1044 CE – 1085 CE

   Foundation of the empire under Anawrahta (r. 11 August 1044 – 11 April 1077), the textbook founder of the first Burmese empire. The Glass Palace Chronicle records his conquest of the Mon capital of Thaton on 17 May 1057, after a three-month siege, bringing the Pali Tipitaka, Theravada monks, and Mon craftsmen north to Pagan — though Michael Aung-Thwin (The Mists of Rāmañña, 2005) has argued there is no contemporary epigraphic evidence for a substantial Mon kingdom at Thaton in the 11th century and treats the Thaton conquest as a post-Pagan legend. Anawrahta adopted Theravada Buddhism under the Mon monk Shin Arahan, built 43 forts along the Shan foothills (7 February 1061), and extended Pagan's reach from Katha in the upper Irrawaddy to the Tenasserim coast in the south. Arakan and the Shan highlands were tributary, not directly ruled. Chronicle says Anawrahta was gored to death by a buffalo in 1077.

3. Pagan Kingdom (Classical Consolidation)1077 CE – 1180 CE

   Classical consolidation phase under Sawlu (1077–1084), Kyansittha (1084–1112/13), Alaungsithu (Sithu I, 1112/13–1167), and Narathu (1167–1171). Kyansittha, the most celebrated classical ruler, completed the Shwezigon Pagoda (c. 1090) and built the Ananda Temple (consecrated 1105), which remains the masterwork of Pagan architecture. His 1112/13 CE quadrilingual Myazedi inscription (Saka 1034) — in Old Burmese, Pali, Old Mon and Pyu — is the 'Burmese Rosetta Stone' and the key to the decipherment of Pyu. Pagan was formally recognised as a sovereign kingdom by Song China and by the Chola empire of south India, and stepped into the maritime vacuum left in the Bay of Bengal after the Chola raid on Srivijaya (1025) as the dominant mainland Theravada power. The Irrawaddy delta / Lower Burma was fully absorbed during this phase. Narathu was murdered in 1167 (chronicle legend: by Indian envoys) and built the Dhammayangyi temple during his short reign.

4. Pagan Kingdom (Zenith under Narapatisithu)1174 CE – 1255 CE

   Territorial zenith under Narapatisithu / Sithu II (r. 21 May 1174 – 18 August 1211) and Htilominlo / Nadaungmya (1211–1234). Narapatisithu directly controlled Upper Burma to Bhamo on the upper Irrawaddy (the Dali/Nanzhao frontier), all of Lower Burma including the Irrawaddy delta, and the Tenasserim coast down to Mergui (Myeik); Arakan, the Shan hills, and the Kachin highlands were tributary. He crushed Mon rebellions on the Tenasserim coast, suppressed a Kudu rebellion at Tagaung, and expanded the Kyaukse and Mu-valley irrigation systems that formed the kingdom's rice-tax base. Narapatisithu built the Sulamani (1183) and Gawdawpalin temples; Htilominlo built the eponymous Htilominlo temple (c. 1218). The Sinhalese monk Chapata's mission to Sri Lanka returned c. 1180 and reformed Burmese Theravada along Mahavihara lines, splitting the sangha and beginning the long process of Burmese–Sinhalese Theravada alignment. The ~10,000 temples of the Bagan plain are overwhelmingly the product of this and the preceding classical phase; ~2,200 survive.

5. Pagan Kingdom (Decline & Mongol Collapse)1245 CE – 1297 CE

   Decline and collapse under Kyaswa (1235–1249), Uzana (1249–1256), and Narathihapate (r. 1256 – 1 July 1287). Massive tax-exempt monastic land grants progressively eroded the crown's fiscal base — the 'Aung-Thwin thesis' (Pagan: Origins, 1985). Narathihapate executed Mongol envoys sent by Kublai Khan in 1271–1273; the Mongols responded with the Battle of Ngasaunggyan in 1277 (the battle described, secondhand, by Marco Polo), a major 1283–1285 invasion that took Ngasaunggyan, Kaungsin, Tagaung and Bhamo, and the flight of Narathihapate south to Lower Burma — earning him the chronicle epithet 'the king who fled from the Taruk' (the Chinese/Mongols). In January 1287 he submitted formally to Kublai Khan; on 1 July 1287 he was poisoned at Prome by his son Thihathu. Pagan continued under Yuan suzerainty with the puppet king Kyawswa (May 1289 – 17 December 1297), formally invested by the Mongol court on 20 March 1297. Effective power by then had passed to the Myinsaing 'Three Shan Brothers' (Athinkhaya, Yazathingyan, Thihathu — their Shan ethnicity is disputed by modern scholarship, which prefers 'the Three Brothers of Myinsaing'), who overthrew Kyawswa on 17 December 1297, formally ending the Pagan dynasty. After 1297 Burma fragmented into the Myinsaing/Pinya, Sagaing and later Ava successor states.

Key Rulers

Key Events

Related Civilisations

Sources

1. Aung-Thwin, Michael (1985) Pagan: The Origins of Modern Burma(The standard revisionist monograph on Pagan. Central thesis: tax-exempt monastic land grants ('sangha' donations) progressively eroded the crown's fiscal base and left Pagan unable to resist the Mongol invasions.)
2. Aung-Thwin, Michael (2005) The Mists of Rāmañña: The Legend That Was Lower Burma(Argues that there was no substantial Mon kingdom at Thaton in the 11th century and that the traditional narrative of Anawrahta's 1057 conquest of Thaton and the Mon 'civilising' of Pagan is a post-Pagan legend. Important caveat for the traditional Glass Palace Chronicle account.)
3. Luce, G.H. (1969–70) Old Burma – Early Pagán, 3 volumes(The classic epigraphic and architectural study of early Pagan, by the doyen of pre-WWII Burma studies. Still the standard reference for Pagan inscriptions and temple typology.)
4. Strachan, Paul (1989) Pagan: Art and Architecture of Old Burma(Standard single-volume architectural handbook for the surviving temples of the Bagan plain, with stylistic periodisation and royal attributions.)
5. Lieberman, Victor (2003) Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830, Volume 1: Integration on the Mainland(Big-picture comparative history framing Pagan as the first mainland Southeast Asian 'charter state'. Chapter 2 treats Pagan in direct comparison with Angkor and Dai Viet.)
6. Hall, D.G.E. (1955) A History of South-East Asia(Classic textbook history of Southeast Asia, with foundational chapters on Pagan that draw on the Glass Palace Chronicle and Luce.)
7. Than Tun (1988) Essays on the History and Buddhism of Burma(Collected essays by the doyen of post-independence Burmese historiography, covering Pagan-period Theravada, sangha organisation, and royal patronage.)
8. Frasch, Tilman (1996) Pagan: Stadt und Staat(Revised PhD (Heidelberg) on the city of Pagan as a state formation. In German; still the most detailed modern reconstruction of Pagan's urban and state institutions.)
9. Myazedi Inscription (1112/13 CE, Saka 1034)(Quadrilingual pillar inscription (Old Burmese, Pali, Old Mon, Pyu) at Myinkaba village near Bagan, dedicated by Prince Rajakumar to his dying father Kyansittha. The 'Burmese Rosetta Stone' — key to the decipherment of Pyu. Dated Saka 1034, which converts to 1112/13 CE. Inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2015.)
10. Hmannan Yazawin (Glass Palace Chronicle)(Royal chronicle of Burma compiled 1829–1832 for King Bagyidaw. Draws on earlier chronicles including the Zatadawbon Yazawin and Maha Yazawin. English translation (Part I) by Pe Maung Tin and G.H. Luce as The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma, Oxford University Press, 1923. The foundational narrative source for Pagan history, though late and subject to retrospective elaboration.)
11. Zatadawbon Yazawin(The earliest surviving Burmese chronicle, compiled in its present form over the 13th–18th centuries. Provides the skeleton chronology used by later chronicles including the Glass Palace Chronicle.)