The campaign board puts Chapata's monastery at Nyaung-U, three miles above Pagan, where the market and the landing are.
The tradition we know ties a bell-shaped 'Chapata' or 'Sapada' pagoda in the Sinhalese style to the monk, and puts it at Myinkaba or at Nyaung-U; we tried English Wikipedia pages under both spellings, found none, and could not settle the site or the date of the pagoda. English Wikipedia names 'Capata (Saddhammajotipala)' only as one of the Bagan-era scholars. What is reasonably clear is that a returned monk of the Ceylon line in the 1190s would be given a house on the temple plain by the king or a noble, and that his house is the centre of the Latter Order's teaching.
Any claim about its size, its servants or its land is mine to leave out.
Who holds it
- Name
- Chapata (Saddhammajotipala)
- Title
- Elder of the house
- Since
- after October 1191
- Born
- about 1152 to 1161 (our arithmetic from the page)
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia (Uttarajiva, Burmese Buddhism); the house itself is on the campaign board, not on any page we read.
What it holds
- The monastery and its pagoda (site not settled)
- Whatever gifts the king and the court gave on his return (not known)
How things stand that morning
A newly founded or newly favoured teaching house of the Ceylon line.
Places of note
- Nyaung-U: The campaign board's site.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry nyaung-u-chapata puts the monastery at Nyaung-U. The pagoda is, in the tradition we know, at Myinkaba or Nyaung-U; neither site was confirmed. The seat is set at the Nyaung-U landing for the map.
Evidence: Only the campaign board and a one-line mention on a modern page; no inscription read.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A small disc at the campaign board's site; the actual site may be at Myinkaba.
Primary sources for Kingdom of Pagan
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma, The Royal Historical Commission of King Bagyidaw (Monywe Sayadaw and others), drawing on U Kala's Maha Yazawin (about 1724) and earlier chronicles (1829 to 1832). The standard Burmese court chronicle, compiled six centuries after 1200 from older chronicles now lost. Read online
- The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- Epigraphia Birmanica, being lithic and other inscriptions of Burma, Various, edited by Taw Sein Ko, C. Duroiselle and C. O. Blagden (inscriptions of the 11th to 15th centuries; the series ran from 1919 to 1936). The Archaeological Survey of Burma's series of edited inscriptions with full translations. Read online
- Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya and Ava; Inscriptions of Burma, Various (the Pagan kings, queens, ministers and donors), edited by Tun Nyein, Taw Sein Ko, G. H. Luce and Pe Maung Tin (inscriptions of the 11th to 14th centuries; editions 1899 and 1933 to 1956). The dedicatory inscriptions of Pagan are the only contemporary texts for the kingdom of Narapatisithu (reigning 1174 to 1211). Read online
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.