Bagan (Former Pagan), the capital of the first Myanmar Empire, is the most ancient historical place in the middle of Myanmar. It is also one of the richest archaeological sites in Southeast Asia because of its well known unique architectures and the number of the temples and pagodas. The 42 sq km area of Bagan contains over 2000 edifices, the well-preserved pagodas and temples representing the rich cultural heritage of the 11th-13th century.
Bagan is notable for its expense of sacred geography, the numger and size of their individual ancient monuments. Most buildings were built in the 11th to 13th centuries, during the time when Bagan was the capital of the Myanmar dynasty. Bagan is also the first place to have transformed into a religious and cultural centre, by Shin Arahan, the monk who brought Theravada Buddhism to this land.
Bagan is full of ancient architectural designs, mural paintings, precious frescoes and stone inscriptions to see for yourself, and also it is the centre for the manufacturing of lacquerware products in Myanmar. Hence, it is marked as a cultural heritage of the Myanmar people, and also a landmark full of ancient pagodas and monuments which can be rarely encountered today. Bagan is one of the major historical landmarks of Asia and represents the outstanding achievement of Theravada Buddhism.
In 1057, Anawrahta conquered Thaton and brought back to his capital the Theravada scriptures in Pali, a larger number of Buddhist monks, and artists and craftsmens of every description. From the Mon monks the Bagan people received their alphabet, religion and scriptures. It was from this momentous date that there began the extraordinary architectural and artistic activity which, in a little more than two centuries, covered the city and its environs with thousands of splendid monuments of every shape and size, the inner walls of most of which are decorated with incredible frescoes.
The square temples domintated by Mon influence are distinguished by their dark corridors which are dimly lighted by perforated windows and the bright frescoes of variegated colour with Mon writing on the walls.
The typical Bagan Style temples are bright and airy within, with imposing plan and height. But there are also some temples with intermediate forms.
The end of the thirteenth century witnessed the fall of the Bagan dynasty. Thousands of pagodas were despoiled by the invaders and vandals and the king, who fled from the Chinese, is believed to have dismantled a considerable number of the monuments to collect materials for building forts. Most of the sites were damaged by the 1975 earthquake and cooperation with UNESCO projects helps some experimental conservation work, restoration of mural paintings and maintaining some of the rare monuments. Since then the great mass of the religious edifices were left to decay and ruin and today we see no more than a hundred splendid monuments which attract and retain attention and since their foundation, have remaied as places of worship.
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