Pyu City-States

The Pyu city-states were a collection of independent walled urban centres that flourished across the Irrawaddy valley of present-day Upper Myanmar from roughly the 2nd century BCE until their absorption by the Pagan Kingdom around the 11th century CE.

Established by Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu peoples who migrated south from the region of modern Yunnan, the settlements developed in three irrigated zones along the Mu River, the Kyaukse plains, and the Minbu district. The five largest cities were Beikthano, Maingmaw, Binnaka, Halin, and Sri Ksetra, the last of which became the dominant centre by the 7th to 8th centuries. Each city was a moated, gated polity governed by chiefs or kings on Indian monarchical models, and there was no single unifying empire so much as a shared civilisation linked by trade, religion, and culture. The Pyu adopted Theravada Buddhism, Indian-derived Brahmi script, and elements of Sanskrit and Pali learning, leaving behind monumental stupas, urn burials, and inscriptions. Strategically positioned on overland and riverine routes between China and India, the city-states grew wealthy as trade intermediaries while sustaining an irrigated rice economy. Their long period of relative peace was disrupted by raids from the Nanzhao kingdom in the 9th century, after which the rising Bamar of Pagan gradually overtook Pyu territory, with Pyu identity and institutions ultimately merging into early Burmese civilisation. Three of the cities, Halin, Beikthano, and Sri Ksetra, are inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.