Pagan

The Pagan dynasty ruled from the city of Pagan on the middle Irrawaddy, a ninth-century settlement of Burmese ancestors fortified by King Pyinbya in 849. Anawrahta conquered the Mon kingdom of Thaton in 1057, unified the Irrawaddy valley, made Theravada Buddhism the royal faith and gave Burmese its own script.

Kyansittha built the Ananda Temple, and under Narapatisithu the empire reached its zenith: over ten thousand Buddhist temples rose around Pagan, and Burmese displaced Pyu and Mon as the court's written language. Endless donations of tax-free land to the sangha drained the crown.

Under Narathihapate, Mongol invasions from 1277 broke the empire; he fled and was murdered at Prome in 1287. Kyawswa, enthroned in 1289, fell to the Myinsaing brothers in 1297; later rulers held only Pagan's district as puppets of Pinya and then Ava. The last ruler, Uzana II, died around 1369; Pagan princesses married into neighbouring courts, and his nephew Swa Saw Ke of Ava carried the line's blood into the Ava royal house.