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The growing influence of the monkhood over resources prompted a decline, inviting Mongol and Tartar invasions. However, the Buddhist kingdom was isolated from its geographical neighbours who followed other religions. Their harnessing of water resources led to a surge in rice production. The line of kings that followed him constructed thousands of pagodas, and also monasteries, libraries and colleges. Old city states gave way to a more unified administration, which reached it’s apogee during the reign of king Anawrahta (or Aniruddha) who successfully unified all of Burma by 1057. Burma emergesīy the ninth century a group of people from the north, the Bamar, gained prominence and founded the powerful kingdom of Pagan (today’s Bagan). Today over 80 per cent of Burma’s people are Buddhist and the country has the largest number of monks as a percentage of the total population. In the fourth century, however, this civilization underwent its defining moment when it adopted South India’s Theravada style of Buddhism.
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However, recent research indicates that civilization in Burma’s Irawaddy valley is very old – 3,500 years ago its inhabitants were farming rice, raising livestock and using bronze implements. Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, the oldest and holiest Buddhist shrine in Burma.ĭinyar Godrej / New Internationalist BeginningsĬolonial historians of Burma claimed that its earliest civilizations had been founded under Indian influence and could not date back much beyond 500 CE.