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Pagan, the Thousand-Pagoda Capital

Type Object Region Burma Time c. 1044–1287

Pagan was the capital and Buddhist center of Burma's Pagan dynasty from the 11th to 13th centuries, famed for thousands of brick pagodas on the centr…

Timeline

  1. c. 1044–1112Pagan · BurmaAfter unifying Burma, Anawrahta made Pagan his capital, introduced Theravada Buddhism, and built pagodas on a large scale, launching the historical process of the thousand-pagoda realm and laying the foundation for Pagan as a religious and political center.
  2. 1161–1170Pagan pagoda cluster · PaganFrom Alaungsithu to Narathu, Pagan continued to build pagodas on a large scale, such as the Sulamani Pagoda; the city's population and monastic communities expanded, the thousand-pagoda landscape essentially took shape, and trade was conducted with the Southern Song and Southeast Asian states.
  3. c. 1170–1287Pagan · BurmaAfter the 1170s Pagan maintained its pagoda-building tradition, and by the mid-13th century the number of temples reached several thousand; after the Yuan invasion of 1287 the capital lost its status as political center, but the pagoda clusters survive to this day.

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