Bagan

Bagan, formerly known as Pagan, is an ancient city on a bend of the Irrawaddy River in the dry plains of central Myanmar, about 290 kilometres south-west of Mandalay. From the eleventh to the late thirteenth century it served as capital of the Pagan Kingdom, the first state to bring together the lands that later became Myanmar. Its rulers and subjects raised more than 10,000 temples, stupas and monasteries on the surrounding plain, and the remains of over 2,000 still stand, making it one of the densest concentrations of Buddhist monuments anywhere.

The Burmese chronicles say the city dates from the second century CE and received its walls in 849 under King Pyinbya. Western historians instead think it was established in the mid to late ninth century by the Mranma, or Burmans, who had recently moved into the Irrawaddy valley from the kingdom of Nanzhao. For a time it was one of several rival towns in a region long dominated by the Pyu city-states, but by the late tenth century it had outgrown its neighbours. The Tharaba Gate, the only surviving section of the old city wall, has been radiocarbon dated to about 1020.

From 1044 to 1287 Bagan was the political, economic and cultural centre of the kingdom. Kings such as Anawrahta, who began the great Shwezigon Pagoda completed under his successor Kyansittha in 1102, led a wave of building in the eleventh century. Theravada Buddhism gained royal backing from the mid-eleventh century, but Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism, Hindu cults and the worship of local spirits all survived alongside it. The city drew monks and scholars from India, Sri Lanka and the Khmer lands, and became known for Pali learning.

Building reached its peak between roughly 1150 and 1200, when most of the largest monuments went up, among them the Thatbyinnyu, at 66 metres the tallest temple, and the massive Dhammayangyi. The temples fall into two main types: solid, bell-shaped stupas holding relics, and hollow gu temples entered for worship and meditation. Bagan's builders developed vaulted interiors earlier than was usual in India, and the skill was later lost; in the eighteenth century masons could not reproduce it. In the thirteenth century new building shifted towards monasteries and many smaller shrines paid for by a wider range of donors, which some historians read as a sign of shrinking resources. The population in the city's heyday has been estimated at anywhere between 50,000 and 200,000.

The kingdom collapsed in 1287 amid repeated invasions by the armies of the Mongol Empire between 1277 and 1301. Recent research suggests the Mongols may never have reached Bagan itself. The historian Michael Aung-Thwin has argued that the provincial governors who fought them became a new ruling elite, so power moved to their capitals and Bagan became a backwater. It ceased to be the capital in 1297, when the Myinsaing kingdom took control of Upper Burma.

The town survived as a place of pilgrimage. A few impressive monuments were still built until the mid-fifteenth century, but fewer than 200 temples were added after that. Pilgrims focused on a score of famous shrines such as the Ananda and the Shwezigon, which were repainted and refitted over the centuries, while thousands of lesser temples fell into ruin. Under the Konbaung dynasty, between 1752 and 1885, the state carried out repairs that often ignored the original designs.

Bagan lies in an active earthquake zone. A major earthquake on 8 July 1975 damaged many temples, the ninth-century Bupaya stupa beyond repair. In the 1990s Myanmar's military government rebuilt many damaged monuments to attract tourists, using modern materials with little regard for the original forms, and added a golf course, a highway and a 61-metre viewing tower. Historians and conservationists condemned the work, and it is widely thought to have delayed UNESCO recognition. Another earthquake in August 2016 damaged nearly 400 temples.

UNESCO finally inscribed Bagan as a World Heritage Site on 6 July 2019, 24 years after it was first nominated, on condition that hotels inside the archaeological zone be moved out. The site, which covers some 5,000 hectares, faces continuing risks from earthquakes, climate and limited conservation funding.