Pagan

The last kings of Pagan ruled little more than the city itself. Kyawswa, crowned in 1289 without an army, submitted to the Mongols in 1297 to keep his throne, and before the year was out the Myinsaing brothers deposed him. The city, once home to perhaps 200,000 people, shrank to a small town, where Anawrahta's descendants stayed on as governors for their new masters until the 1360s.

The temples outlived the kingdom. A few grand ones still went up until the middle of the 15th century, but after that building almost stopped. Pilgrims crowded a score of famous shrines such as the Ananda and the Shwezigon, repainting their walls and dedicating new Buddha images, while thousands of lesser temples crumbled among the scrub. From 1752 the Konbaung kings paid to restore them, though not always faithfully to the old designs.