The Genesis and Early Grandeur of the Bagan Empire: A Journey Through Medieval Myanmar

This episode of Fall of Civilizations delves into the origins and early flourishing of the Bagan Empire in medieval Myanmar, framed by Marco Polo's late 13th-century encounter with the city of Mien, which we now know as Bagan. Polo's vivid descriptions of thousands of golden temples, even in a state of disrepair, underscore the empire's former magnificence. The podcast aims to explore how this kingdom rose in the Irrawaddy river valley, built an unparalleled collection of religious monuments, and what led to its eventual, sudden collapse, offering a personal perspective on witnessing the end of a world.

The narrative establishes the geographical stage: Myanmar's Dry Zone, an arid heartland made fertile by the Irrawaddy River and volcanic ash from Mount Popa. This unique environment allowed for bountiful rice harvests and supported early human settlements, with evidence of copper, bronze, and iron working, and the domestication of chickens and pigs dating back millennia. The Irrawaddy, a crucial highway, shaped the region's culture and language, with terms like 'anya' and 'akye' (upstream and downstream) replacing cardinal directions. The episode also touches on the complex naming history of the country, oscillating between 'Bama' and 'Myanmar' due to colonial and political influences.

The podcast meticulously examines the historical sources available for medieval Myanmar, primarily stone inscriptions and the Burmese Chronicles. These chronicles, including the Maha Yazawin, Yazawin Thit, and the Glass Palace Chronicle, are acknowledged as instruments of royal propaganda, replete with exaggerations, mythology, and fantastical elements. Despite these biases, they preserve crucial dates, events, and traditional memory. The episode discusses the Pyu people, the earlier inhabitants of the Irrawaddy valley, whose culture was heavily influenced by Indian trade and Buddhism, before their displacement by Nanchao raids in the 9th century, which paved the way for the Mien people (ancestors of the Burmese) to settle and found Bagan around 849 AD.

The story culminates with the emergence of King Anawrahta, considered the first great king of Bagan, who ascended to power amidst family treachery and upheaval. His early life was marked by his father's usurpation and subsequent dethronement by Anawrahta's stepbrothers, Kyizo and Sokkate. Anawrahta's dramatic challenge and defeat of Sokkate in single combat, as recounted in the Glass Palace Chronicle, solidified his claim to the throne. This pivotal moment set the stage for Anawrahta to lead Bagan to its golden age, transforming it into a powerful empire and a center of art and architecture, laying the groundwork for the monumental legacy that Marco Polo would later witness.

After the journey of 15 days that has been mentioned, you reach the city of Mien, which is large, magnificent, and the capital of the kingdom.

One of these pyramids was covered with a plate of gold an inch in thickness so that nothing besides the gold was visible, and the other with a plate of silver of the same thickness.

Together with the writer Rustichello, Marco Polo would become the first outsider to write a description of a city at the heart of an empire that today we know by the name Bagan.

I want to ask, what did they have in common, what led to their fall, and what did it feel like to be a person alive at the time who witnessed the end of their world?

The Irrawaddy River was so conceptually important to the history of this region that people in Burma would rarely talk about the country in terms of north and south, but rather used the words anya and akye, upstream and downstream.

There are chronicles written by ancient scholars, but in those chronicles written by ancient scholars, there are some matters which do not accord with the inscriptions.

The king of the law, seeing the many discrepancies and repetitions in the former chronicles, gave thought to the matter. Being convinced that a chronicle of kings should be the standard and not a thing of conflicting and false statements, he assembled his ministers and ecclesiastical teachers in the front chamber of the palace...

To the south of Yongchang City, one first passes beyond the lands of the Tang Empire to phoenix-blue jungles, then to vast skies, then to clearings. There lie huge rivers and settlements.

When Kyizo and Sokkate came of age, they built a pleasant monastery and said to King Kunhsaw, 'Come and call thy blessings on the monastery,' and the king took no heed nor scrutiny, but hearkened to them, and Kyizo and Sokkate seized the king and threatened him and made him become a monk...

Then said Anawrahta, 'Brother, your turn is over. Now it is mine. Meet it as best you can.' And he smote him and pierced him with the Areindama lance so that it went in at the front and came out behind.