Pagan Kingdom

Uncommon card · No. 124892

The Pagan Kingdom (Burmese: ပုဂံပြည် Băgam pyi [bəɡàɰ̃ pji]; lit. 'Bagan state'), also called Bagan Empire (ပုဂံဧကရာဇ်နိုင်ငံတော်) or the First Burmese Empire, was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-day Myanmar. Pagan's 250-year rule over the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery laid the foundation for the ascent of Burmese language and culture, the spread of Bamar ethnicity in Upper Myanmar, and the growth of Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar and in mainland Southeast Asia. The kingdom grew out of a small 9th-century settlement at Pagan by the Mranma people, the predecessor to the modern Bamar ethnicity. Over the next two hundred years, the small principality gradually grew to absorb its surrounding regions until the 1050s and 1060s when King Anawrahta founded the Pagan Empire, presumably for the first time unifying under one polity the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. By the late 12th century, Anawrahta's successors had extended their influence...

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