Anawrahta

Who is Anawrahta?

Anawrahta Minsaw was the king who founded the Pagan Empire, the first unified kingdom to bring together the peoples of the Irrawaddy River valley under one central authority. Ascending the throne in 1044, he transformed a small principality in the dry zone of Upper Burma into the founding state of what is now considered the first Burmese empire, the direct ancestor of modern Myanmar. He is credited with unifying the Irrawaddy valley for the first time in recorded history, bringing the Shan hills and the Arakan coast under Pagan's influence, and halting the westward expansion of the Khmer Empire along the Tenasserim coastline. Anawrahta is also remembered as the king who embraced and promoted Theravada Buddhism as the dominant faith of the kingdom, reportedly bringing Buddhist scriptures and relics from the Mon kingdom of Thaton to Pagan and sponsoring the construction of numerous temples across the Bagan plain. Historians regard the start of his reign as the beginning of historically verifiable Burmese history, and he is widely honored today as the father of the Burmese nation.

Sources: Britannica, 'Anawrahta' (biography entry) · G.E. Harvey, History of Burma (1925) · Pagan-period Burmese royal chronicles (Zata dating tradition)