Bagan

History

According to the royal chronicles, Bagan was founded in the second century CE, and fortified in 849 by King Pyinbya, 34th successor of the founder of early Bagan. Western scholarship however holds that Bagan was founded in the mid-to-late 9th century by the Mranma (Burmans), who had recently entered the Irrawaddy valley from the Nanzhao Kingdom. It was among several competing Pyu city-states until the late 10th century when the Burman settlement grew in authority and grandeur. From 1044 to 1287, Bagan was the capital as well as the political, economic and cultural nerve center of the Bagan Empire. Over the course of 250 years, Bagan's rulers and their wealthy subjects constructed over 10,000 religious monuments (approximately 1000 stupas, 10,000 small temples and 3000 monasteries) in an area of in the Bagan plains. The prosperous city grew in size and grandeur, and became a cosmopolitan center for religious and secular studies, specializing in Pali scholarship in grammar and philosophical-psychological (abhidhamma) studies as well as works in a variety of languages on prosody, phonology, grammar, astrology, alchemy, medicine, and legal studies. The city attracted monks and students from as far as India, Sri Lanka and the Khmer Empire. The culture of Bagan was dominated by religion. The religion of Bagan was fluid, syncretic and by later standards, unorthodox. It was largely a continuation of religious trends in the Pyu era where Theravada Buddhism co-existed with Mahayana Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, various Hindu (Saivite, and Vaishana) schools as well as native animist (nat) traditions. While the royal patronage of Theravada Buddhism since the mid-11th century had enabled the Buddhist school to gradually gain primacy, other traditions continued to thrive throughout…

Geography

The Bagan Archaeological Zone, defined as the area centred around Old Bagan, consisting of Nyaung U in the north and New Bagan in the south, |date=February 2012}}

Most-observed species

• Western Golden Dartlet

  Ischnura rubilio Selys, 1876 · Insecta
  1
• Burmese Krait

  Bungarus magnimaculatus Wall & Evans, 1901 · Squamata
  1

Most recent

• M 4.1 — 2026-08-06
  32 km ENE of Shwebo, Burma (Myanmar)
• M 4.2 — 2026-07-30
  70 km SSE of Mawlaik, Burma (Myanmar)
• M 4.2 — 2026-07-29
  7 km WNW of Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar)
• M 4.6 — 2026-07-23
  71 km ESE of Mawlaik, Burma (Myanmar)
• M 4.9 — 2026-07-17
  49 km NE of Shwebo, Burma (Myanmar)
• M 4.2 — 2026-07-11
  27 km ENE of Shwebo, Burma (Myanmar)