The largest mass of brick at Pagan, built between 1167 and 1170 by Narathu, who took the throne by killing his father Alaungsithu and his elder brother and who is presumed to have built it to atone.
The Burmese chronicles say he was murdered by some Indians before it was finished; Sinhalese sources say Sinhalese invaders killed him. Only the four porches and the outer corridors can be entered, and the interior is bricked up 'for unknown reasons'. The page says nothing of its use in the 1190s or of any later completion. The campaign board adds that the dynasty murdered its way through the generation before the one now on the throne.
Narapatisithu, who came to the throne in 1174, is Narathu's son.
Who holds it
- Title
- Keepers of the temple
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia, Dhammayangyi Temple (citing Coedes, Hall and Aung Thaw).
What it holds
- The temple fabric; no estate known
How things stand that morning
An unfinished royal temple that no one uses fully; a standing reminder of the 1167 crime.
Places of note
- The Dhammayangyi: Unfinished temple.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry dhammayangyi: 'begun by Narathu about 1167 and left unfinished when he was killed'. Agreed. The page's coordinates (21.1620, 94.8729) are about 300 m north-west of the campaign board's (21.160, 94.875); the page's are used.
Evidence: The building is firm; the cause of its unfinished state is disputed between the Burmese and the Sinhalese tradition.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
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.