Buddhist monasteries · The kingdom of Pagan under Narapatisithu · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Great monasteries and their endowments

At Pagan a temple and its monastery are one foundation: the Thatbyinnyu is a five-storey temple whose lower floors held monks, whose fourth floor was a library and whose top held relics (English Wikipedia, citing the 1902 Archaeological Report), and the Ananda Okkyaung inside the Ananda's precinct is dated 1137 and carries an inscription crediting three brothers with the building (same).

Kings, nobles, army officers and the craftsmen of the temple workshops gave most of the gifts: over ninety percent of religious gifts, the Burmese Buddhism page says, while peasants leaned to the nat cult. Gifts took the form of tax-free fields and of bonded servants, who left the tax roll for good, and the page ties this to the later strain on the kingdom. The campaign board adds that the Dhammayazika's dedication inscription lists the villages given to maintain it and that the Sulamani's endowment lands are a real transfer of rice ground out of the crown's hands; we read neither inscription.

Building is at its peak between about 1150 and 1200 and turns in the thirteenth century to monasteries and small private gifts (English Wikipedia, Bagan), which fits Minnanthu being a monastic quarter that fills up after 1200. Salay, a day's boat down the river, is a monastery town of Pagan-period temples and the collecting point of the west bank's rice (board).

Who holds it

Name
not named in any source we read for 1200
Title
Abbots (sayadaw) of the great houses
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

English Wikipedia (Bagan, Burmese Buddhism, Thatbyinnyu Temple, Ananda Temple); the inscriptions are known second hand.

What it holds

  • Tax-free fields and orchards on the plain and in the Kyaukse and Minbu tracts (extent for 1200 unknown)
  • Bonded servants of the temples and monasteries, hereditary (extent for 1200 unknown)
  • Libraries (the Thatbyinnyu's fourth floor) and relic chambers
  • The monastic quarter of Minnanthu and the monasteries of Salay

How it was acquired

By gift, in every reign since Anawrahta; Sulamani 1183 and Dhammayazika 1196 are the king's own recent gifts.

Allies and rivals

Client and creditor of the king; the two orders compete for the same gifts.

How things stand that morning

Rich, endowed and still gaining; every new gift comes off the king's rice and labour.

Wealth

Land and people, not coin. No figure for 1200.

Threats

  • A king or a bad year that cancels the exemption (none dated)
  • The slow drain of the tax roll that the campaign board and the page both mark

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 1215The Mahabodhi temple is built at Pagan (later than 1200: not yet).Depends on: Nothing in play changes the building programme. Stopped by: A fiscal crisis in the reign.
  2. 1218The Htilominlo temple (later than 1200: not yet).Depends on: Htilominlo reigns from 1211. Stopped by: A different succession.
  3. 1284The Mingalazedi (later than 1200: not yet).Depends on: The kingdom stays rich enough to build. Stopped by: The Mongol invasions.

Places of note

  • Minnanthu: Monastic quarter.
  • Salay: Monastery town below Pagan.
  • Ananda Okkyaung: Monastery of 1137 within the Ananda precinct.

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry powers text: 'every temple endowed takes land and the people on it permanently off the tax roll'. Agreed in principle; no 1200 figure exists.
  • The campaign board entry salay-sale is a monastery town 'a day's boat journey down'; the Salay record has the details.

Evidence: The mechanism is well attested in general; for 1200 no figure and no named abbot is in any source we read, and the often quoted late thirteenth century share of tax-free land (about three fifths) is not for this date.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Only the villages round the temples are drawn; endowed land elsewhere cannot be mapped from any source we read.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. English Wikipedia, Bagan
  2. English Wikipedia, Burmese Buddhism
  3. English Wikipedia, Thatbyinnyu Temple
  4. English Wikipedia, Ananda Temple
  5. English Wikipedia, Pagan Kingdom

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.