Pagan plain

Who holds it

Title

The king's officers over the crown villages, and the headmen of the temple villages

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No source we read names a holder.

What it holds

• The walled city, the crown and temple villages, the landing and the workshops

How things stand that morning

The core of the kingdom at the height of its building; at peace on every record we could read.

Places of note

• Pagan: The walled city.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry pagan-bagan: 'some forty square kilometres of dry plain' outside the wall; English Wikipedia's zone is about 13 by 8 km (about 104 sq km). Not reconciled.

Evidence: The monuments and the dated temples are firm; administration is chronicle and modern summary.

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

On the map: The polygon covers both banks from Salay to the Chindwin mouth; the temple zone itself is the eastern part. East of the temple zone the outline runs on over the Popa foothills and the Myingyan dry plain (Kyaukpadaung, Taungtha, Myingyan, Natogyi, Mahlaing) to the edge of the Meiktila tanks. That stretch is drawn from the general picture of Pagan's hinterland, not from a record that names a holder.

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