Page 361 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

History CONTEXTS 359
As in the Pyu city-states, the Mon traded extensively with India, and were strongly
influenced by Indian culture and ideas. They were among the first peoples to convert to
Theravada Buddhism and followed (at least to begin with) a relatively pure form of the
religion – unlike the heterogeneous Ari Buddhism practised further north by the Pyu.

Bagan and the Bamars
The beginning of the end of the Pyu Millennium came in 832 with the arrival of a new
wave of invaders and settlers who would subsequently become the nation’s dominant
ethnic group: the Bamar (see p.381). Following migratory routes first taken by the Pyu
a thousand years previously, Bamar raiders descended upon the Ayeyarwady valley from
the Nanzhao Kingdom in Yunnan, sacking the major Pyu city of Hanlin in 832 before
returning in 835, raiding and pillaging further Pyu towns. Some of the invading Bamar
appear to have brought their families with them and to have settled in the region. The
exact details are vague, although what is known is that sometime in the mid-ninth
century – the traditional date given is 849 – the Bamar settled and fortified the small
town of Bagan (aka Pagan), located in a strategic location close to the confluence of the
Ayeyarwady and Chindwin rivers in the middle of the old Pyu heartlands.
After their initial raids, the migration of the Bamar appears to have been a relatively
peaceful affair – not so much an apocalyptic clash of cultures as a gradual merging of
two related ethnic groups, Pyu and Bamar, both originally hailing from southern China
and speaking similar Sino-Tibetan languages. Further Bamar from Nanzhao continued
to arrive in the region during the ninth and tenth centuries, assimilating many aspects
of the already thousand-year-old Pyu civilization. Bagan, meanwhile, gradually
extended its authority over the surrounding plains and by 1044 had expanded to
become the centre of its own sizeable statelet, covering an area stretching across the
central plains as far as modern Mandalay, Meiktila and Magwe.
King Anawrahta and the rise of Bagan
The history of the Bagan Empire began in 1044 with the accession of King Anawrahta
(aka Aniruddha; ruled 1044–78), who transformed Bagan from one of several minor
kingdoms in Upper Burma into the pre-eminent power in the land. In doing so, he
united most of the territories now comprising modern Myanmar into a single state and
laid the foundations of the modern nation, at the same time establishing the primacy
of the Bamar people within it.
Anawrahta began by strengthening Bagan’s economic base, launching ambitious
irrigation schemes whereby large swathes of formerly arid land were opened to new
settlers. Canals were constructed and villages created, establishing the Bagan area as the
rice bowl and commercial powerhouse of Upper Burma. Having consolidated Bagan’s
wealth and influence, Anawrahta gradually expanded the territory under his control.
Formerly independent Pyu towns were taken under Bagan’s rule, while expeditions were
also sent south into Mon territories. The ruler of Bago submitted to Bagan’s authority,
while in 1057 the kingdom of Thaton (which had resisted Anawrahta’s demands for
tribute) was conquered, and its king, Manuha, taken back to Bagan as a captive.
The conquest of Thaton is traditionally seen as pivotal in the history of Bagan.
Anawrahta, it is said, returned to Bagan with over 30,000 Mon slaves, including many

849 1044–77 1057
Bamar settlers establish Bagan emerges as a major power during the rule of Thaton falls to Bagan forces
Bagan King Anawrahta; Theravada Buddhism is established under King Anawrahta
as the state religion of the expanding Bagan Empire

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