Anawrahta establishes Theravada Buddhism across the Pagan realm
- Date
- 1057 CE
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Burma (Pagan Empire), mainland Southeast Asia
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
King Anawrahta (r. 1044-1077), founder of the Pagan (Bagan) Empire in Upper Burma, made Theravada Buddhism the dominant religion of his realm, beginning the tradition's enduring ascendancy in mainland Southeast Asia.
Around 1056 the Mon monk Shin Arahan converted Anawrahta from the prevailing Ari Buddhism, and the king launched sweeping religious reforms that displaced Mahayana, tantric, and animist practices. According to Burmese and Mon tradition, when the Mon king Manuha of Thaton refused to surrender copies of the Pali Canon, Anawrahta besieged and conquered Thaton in 1057, carrying scriptures, monks, and artisans back to Pagan and making it a flourishing centre of Theravada learning. The reformed faith spread through the unified Irrawaddy valley and, with Pagan's later prestige, helped Theravada Buddhism survive its retreat elsewhere in South Asia and take root in the kingdoms of Lan Na, Siam, Lan Xang, and Cambodia in the 13th and 14th centuries. Although the historian Michael Aung-Thwin has argued that the Thaton conquest may be a later legend, Anawrahta's role in entrenching Theravada Buddhism remains a foundational episode in the region's religious history.
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Empires active in 1057 CE
- Almoravid Empire1056 CE – 1147 CE
- Abbasid Caliphate750 CE – 1258 CE
- Song Dynasty960 CE – 1279 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Kanem-Bornu Empire700 CE – 1900 CE
- Toltec State (Tula)950 CE – 1168 CE
Related religion & ideology events
- The East–West Schism splits Latin and Greek Christianity16 July 1054
- The Investiture Controversy and the Walk to Canossa1075–1122 (Investiture Controversy)
- Satuq Bughra Khan and the Kara-Khanid Conversion to Islamc. 934 CE
- King Lalibela carves the rock-hewn churches of a 'New Jerusalem'c. 1181–1221 CE
- Samudra Pasai and the spread of Islam into Indonesiac. 1267 CE
- Huichang Persecution of Buddhism845 CE
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Religion
Accessible sweep of humanity's faiths and belief systems from prehistory to the present.
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