Before Pagan
Buddhism was not new to the region in the 11th century. The Pyu city states, Śrī Kṣetra among them, and the Mon centres to the south, were Buddhist from the early centuries CE: Pāli inscriptions, relic chambers and sculpture show it. Several forms coexisted, including Mahāyāna and tantric ones.
What happened in the Pagan period was consolidation: one tradition becoming the kingdom's own, with royal backing and a reorganised monastic order.
Anawrahta and Bagan
Anawrahta, who ruled from 1044 to 1077, is remembered as the king who established Theravāda in Burma, advised by the monk Shin Arahan. Over the following two and a half centuries, kings, queens, officials and merchants built temples on the plain of Bagan in such numbers that around three and a half thousand monuments still stand there. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2019.
Later centuries
Burmese kings reorganised the monastic order again and again, and Burmese monks became known for the most exacting Abhidhamma scholarship in the Theravāda world. King Mindon convened a council in 1871 and had the canon carved onto 729 marble slabs at Kuthodaw in Mandalay, each under its own small stupa. Another council met in Yangon from 1954 to 1956.
From the late 19th century Burma also produced something new: teachers, Ledi Sayadaw first among them, who argued that lay people should learn Abhidhamma and practise insight meditation themselves. That decision shaped meditation practice worldwide.
Why it matters
Myanmar develops into one of the major centres of Theravāda Buddhist culture, scholarship and monastic life.
History and tradition
What historians can say
The temples, and inscriptions such as the Myazedi pillar of 1113, are solid evidence. The chronicles' tidy story, in which Anawrahta conquers the Mon city of Thaton and carries off its scriptures and monks, is doubted by historians: Michael Aung-Thwin argues for a slower and more mixed development, with the chronicle account shaped by later concerns.