Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The self-assured Anawrahta then turned to architects to create something that befit
Buddha. They built and built, and many of the greatest Bagan edifices date from their ef-
forts, including Shwezigon Paya, considered a prototype for all later Myanmar stupas;
the Pitaka Taik (Scripture Library), built to house the Pitaka (scriptures); and the elegant
and distinctive Shwesandaw Paya, built immediately after the conquest of Thaton. Thus
began what the Myanmar people call the 'First Burmese Empire', which became a pil-
grimage point for Buddhists throughout Southeast Asia.
King Anawrahta's successors, particularly Kyanzittha (r 1084-1113), Alaungsithu (r
1113-67) and Narapatisithu (r 1174-1211), continued their incredible architectural out-
put, although the construction work must have been nonstop throughout the period of
Bagan's glory.
Decline
Historians disagree on exactly what happened to cause Bagan's apparently rapid decline
at the end of the 13th century. The popular Myanmar view is that hordes of Mongols sent
by Kublai Khan swept through the city, ransacking and looting. A contrasting view holds
that the threat of invasion from China threw the last power-ful ruler of Bagan into a pan-
ic. Legend has it that, after a great number of temples were torn down to build fortifica-
tions, the city was abandoned so that the Mongols merely took over an already deserted
city.
Bagan scholar Paul Strachan argues in
Pagan: Art and Architecture of Old Burma
that
the city was never abandoned at all. Indeed evidence suggests Bagan continued as an im-
portant religious and cultural centre into the 14th century and beyond, after which its de-
cay can be blamed on the three-way struggle between the Shan, Mon and Bamar. People
began moving back in some numbers only after the British established a presence in the
area in the late 19th century, but by that point the plain of temples had fallen victim to
frequent earthquakes (there were at least 16 trembles that shook Bagan between 1174 and
the big one in 1975), general weathering and neglect.
Controversial Restoration
The enduring religious significance of Bagan is at the heart of the site's recent transform-
ation from piles of picturesque ruins to a practically complete 13th-century city, minus
the buildings, such as palaces, homes and monasteries, that would have been made of
wood.
Dr Bob Hudson describes it as 'the most radical heritage management project in mod-
ern times', noting that, as of 2008, at least 1299 Buddhist temples, monasteries and stu-
pas had been speculatively rebuilt from mounds of rubble since 1995, and a further 688
damaged buildings received major repairs.
