Burma RJ Handbook

A BU R M A R I V E R J O U R N E Y
ingly unegotistical. Great kings raised momuments that
w e re technically in advance of contemporay Euro p e a n
cathedrals yet told us nothing about themselves. In their
brief, matter of fact, dedicatory inscriptions they rare l y
boast of wealth or power but rather humbly prey for salvation
for themselves, their subjects and all mankind. In
contemporay Cambodia kings were gods and the centers
of meglamanial cults, living in temple palaces. At Pagan
we do not even know where they lived and all we know of
g reat 12th century kings like Sithu I, who reigned for 30
years, consolidated the empire and completed the gre a t
work of nation wide religious purification, and built the
stupendous That-byin-nyu temple, is his name.
By the erection of the Myazedi inscription in 1113 the
Myanma or Burmese language has come to posess a script
of its own and this is used alongside the ancient religious
language of Pali, and the old languages of Pyu and Mon.
During the early period of Pagan, Mon culture seems to
have been the dominant literary language and is used to
caption paintings in the early temples. By the early 12th
century Old Burmese replaces Mon in popularity. The
Burmese had arrived at a confident expression both in literature
and the visual arts, not to mention structural engineering.
The principal architectural forms, monuments
and periods will be described below.
We know little of kings and the political life and we
know little of the extent and manner in which the empire
was administered. It is curious that there are few monuments
beyond the Pagan plain area but this does not necessarily
mean that the city was highly populated. Rather
as a centre of revenue collection it became a centre for religious
expenditure. Beyond the walls and moat of the
palace-city area were a number of village-like quarters
solely occupied by a particular artisan group. Thus there
w e re villages of wood carvers, brick makers or stucco
workers. The inscriptions detail glebe lands and estates
often far away that supported the maintenance of fabric
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