Pagan was a city-state based on the Irrawaddy River in Burma (now known as Myanmar) which was renowned for its creation of numerous Buddhist temples, stupas and monuments. Indeed, the city was so well known as a centre of non-western religions that people still use the term 'pagan' as a sometimes objectionable term to indicate a believer of a rival form of religion.
Geography
Pagan was most probably built in CE 849 and was a walled town with its western bank on the Irrawaddy. Like Angkor, it was an inland centre that managed to unite various communication networks to control distant areas, including coastal cities that would otherwise seem to be powerful enough to be independent. Pagan was located more or less equally between the Minbu and Kyaukse regions respectively downriver and upriver. Minbu and Kyaukse were important rice-growing areas which yielded a surplus of food that a strong leader could capture and use to establish a bureaucracy and priesthood necessary to support a larger state.
In this region of Burma, several different sets of people lived as neighbours in more or less neighbourly harmony. These included the Mons, the Pyus and the Burmans. The Burmans had arrived in greater numbers in the area with the incursion of the Nanchao army from its home in what is now the southern China province of Yunnan. This invasion seems to have broken the power of the Pyus and provided an opportunity for the allied Burmans to establish their own state. Yet although the Burmans remained the dominant military force, Pagan accepted a great deal of cultural influence from the other peoples of the area. Some famous monuments have inscriptions in four languages: Burma, Pyu, Mon and Pali (better known in western countries as Sanskrit). From Pagan, transport and trade links joined the city with the east coast of Assam, Sri Lanka, Assam and mountainous regions to the north - Pagan chronicles reveal the threat of invasions from both the sea and the mountains.
Anawrahta
Anawrahta was the king who first brought Pagan to international attention on a large scale with a series of military conquests. Subsequent Burmese history paints Anawrahta as a pious figure who was primarily motivated by his desire to obtain relics of the Buddha from other cities. However, together with the inevitable desire to extend personal power that was a feature of so many monarchs of the past, there have also been suggestions that Khmer activity to the southeast had led to the displacement of many Mon people and so this presented a subsequent threat to Pagan power as the Mons moved away from the source of their persecution.
Pagan was most probably built in CE 849 and was a walled town with its western bank on the Irrawaddy. Like Angkor, it was an inland centre that managed to unite various communication networks to control distant areas, including coastal cities that would otherwise seem to be powerful enough to be independent. Pagan was located more or less equally between the Minbu and Kyaukse regions respectively downriver and upriver. Minbu and Kyaukse were important rice-growing areas which yielded a surplus of food that a strong leader could capture and use to establish a bureaucracy and priesthood necessary to support a larger state.
In this region of Burma, several different sets of people lived as neighbours in more or less neighbourly harmony. These included the Mons, the Pyus and the Burmans. The Burmans had arrived in greater numbers in the area with the incursion of the Nanchao army from its home in what is now the southern China province of Yunnan. This invasion seems to have broken the power of the Pyus and provided an opportunity for the allied Burmans to establish their own state. Yet although the Burmans remained the dominant military force, Pagan accepted a great deal of cultural influence from the other peoples of the area. Some famous monuments have inscriptions in four languages: Burma, Pyu, Mon and Pali (better known in western countries as Sanskrit). From Pagan, transport and trade links joined the city with the east coast of Assam, Sri Lanka, Assam and mountainous regions to the north - Pagan chronicles reveal the threat of invasions from both the sea and the mountains.
Anawrahta was the king who first brought Pagan to international attention on a large scale with a series of military conquests. Subsequent Burmese history paints Anawrahta as a pious figure who was primarily motivated by his desire to obtain relics of the Buddha from other cities. However, together with the inevitable desire to extend personal power that was a feature of so many monarchs of the past, there have also been suggestions that Khmer activity to the southeast had led to the displacement of many Mon people and so this presented a subsequent threat to Pagan power as the Mons moved away from the source of their persecution.
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