Burma RJ Handbook

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I R R AWA D D Y F L O T I L L A C O M PA N Y and human population in the vast collegiate-style monasteries. The dedication area itself possessed insuff i c i e n t population to feed so vast a monastic community and it seems that much of the arable Irrawaddy valley was bonded into perpetuity in the service of these great establishments. In addition to distant estates such works of merit included the dedication of considerable support populations. In 1197 one donor gave 141 slaves solely to look after the oil lamps and rice offerings. The Pagan Museum has an excellent collection of artifacts, but nearly all are religious — images, votive plaques and the like. There are few tools nor pots and pans; little evidence of lay life — whether artisan or courtier. Nor are t h e re any weapons and instruments of war. Just like the kings the people left nothing other than their monuments behind. If Buddhism was Pagan’s glory it may also have been its downfall. Perhaps there was nothing left to dedicate — land and people were exhausted. Some scholars argue that the ecological consequences of so much brick baking — re n d e red the aptly named ‘Dry Zone’ arid. Some say Pagan was sacked by the Mongols in 1278, whilst others that the Mongols would never have wasted so valuable an asset, prefering tribute to torch. If the Mongols did not sack the city, who, in search of tre a s u re, tunnelled into relic chambers and smashed many thousands of images open? After Pagan By 1300 there was a new force in the region, the Shan or Tai. They had yet to be pacified by Buddhism and were lusty for the spoils of a fat empire absorbed in re l i g i o u s p reoccupations. They seized their chance in the political vacum left by the Mongol incursion, with a court decayed by intrigue and a land worn with pagoda building. It is most likely then that the temples of Pagan were bro k e n open by treasure hunters as once lavishly monasteries and 14
A BU R M A R I V E R J O U R N E Y colleges emptied of monks as glebe lands fell into decay. The Irrawaddy valley entered a ‘dark age’ of ethnic struggle between Burman, Shan and Mon for control. Power in Upper Burma came to be focused further up the river, around Mandalay, and Pagan was abandoned. Vestiges of art and arc h i t e c t u re are few as power transferred fro m capital to capital, just as a general shifts camp. Between the Fall of Pagan in 1287 and rise of new Burman empire at Toungoo in 1531 there were three main centers of control: Pinya, Sagaing and Ava ruled by Shan- Burman chieftenates. During this period of nearly two h u n d red and fifty years the Shans were converted to Buddhism and Burmese ways, marrying into the ancient line of King Anawratha. The period is marked by stru g- gles between the Mon kingdom of Pegu in the South and the Burmese at Toungoo. The Mons had been absorbed into the Pagan empire in the 11th century and now re-surfaced, their language and culture in tact. By the 15th century reign of Dhammazedi, Pegu had emerged as the most active center of art and culture in the region. By contrast the Shan king Thohanbwa (1527-43) declared that “Burmese pagodas have nothing to do with religion... they a re simply tre a s u re chambers” and proceeded to pillage the Irrawaddy Valley. 15
Page 1 and 2: A Burma River Journey A H A N D B O
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Burma RJ Handbook

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