Editing Myanmar (section)

=== Pagan Kingdom ===
{{main|Pagan Kingdom|Toungoo dynasty|Konbaung dynasty}}
{{see also|Kingdom of Ava|Hanthawaddy Kingdom|Kingdom of Mrauk U|Shan States}}

[[File:Bagan, Burma.jpg|thumb|[[Pagoda]]s and [[kyaung]]s in present-day [[Bagan]], the capital of the [[Pagan Kingdom]]]]
[[Pagan Kingdom|Pagan]] gradually grew to absorb its surrounding states until the 1050s–1060s when [[Anawrahta]] founded the Pagan Kingdom, the first ever unification of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Pagan Empire and the [[Khmer Empire]] were two main powers in mainland Southeast Asia.<ref>[[#Lieberman|Lieberman]], p. 24</ref> The [[Burmese language]] and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the [[Pyu language (Burma)|Pyu]], [[Mon language|Mon]] and [[Pali]] norms{{clarify|date=January 2023}} by the late 12th century.<ref name=mha-63-65>{{cite book |last=Htin Aung |first=Maung |title=A History of Burma |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofburma00htin |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=New York / London |year=1967 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofburma00htin/page/63 63–65]}}</ref> Theravada [[Buddhism]] slowly began to spread to the village level, although [[Vajrayana|Tantric]], [[Mahayana]], [[Hinduism]], and [[Burmese folk religion|folk religion]] remained heavily entrenched. Pagan's rulers and wealthy built over 10,000 [[Buddhist]] temples in the Pagan capital zone alone. Repeated Mongol invasions in the late 13th century toppled the four-century-old kingdom in 1287.<ref name="mha-63-65" />

[[File:MysticalMraukU.jpg|thumb|Temples at [[Mrauk U]]]]
Pagan's collapse was followed by 250 years of political fragmentation that lasted well into the 16th century. Like the Burmans four centuries earlier, [[Shan people|Shan]] migrants who arrived with the Mongol invasions stayed behind. Several competing [[Shan States]] came to dominate the entire northwestern to eastern arc surrounding the Irrawaddy valley. The valley too was beset with petty states until the late 14th century when two sizeable powers, [[Ava Kingdom]] and [[Hanthawaddy Kingdom]], emerged. In the west, a politically fragmented Arakan was under competing influences of its stronger neighbours until the [[Kingdom of Mrauk U]] unified the Arakan coastline for the first time in 1437. The kingdom was a protectorate of the [[Bengal Sultanate]] at different time periods.<ref name=kh-2-25>Maung Maung Tin, Vol. 2, p. 25</ref>

In the 14th and 15th centuries, Ava fought [[Forty Years' War|wars of unification]] but could never quite reassemble the lost empire. Having held off Ava, the [[Mon people|Mon]]-speaking Hanthawaddy entered its golden age, and Arakan went on to become a power in its own right for the next 350 years. In contrast, constant warfare left Ava greatly weakened, and it slowly disintegrated from 1481 onward. In 1527, the Confederation of Shan States conquered Ava and ruled Upper Myanmar until 1555.

Like the Pagan Empire, Ava, [[Hanthawaddy]] and the Shan states were all [[multi-ethnic]] polities. Despite the wars, cultural synchronisation continued. This period is considered a golden age for [[Burmese culture]]. [[Burmese literature]] "grew more confident, popular, and stylistically diverse", and the second generation of Burmese law codes as well as the earliest [[Burmese chronicles|pan-Burma chronicles]] emerged.<ref>[[#Lieberman|Lieberman]], p. 134</ref> Hanthawaddy monarchs introduced religious reforms that later spread to the rest of the country.<ref>[[#Myint-U|Myint-U]], pp. 64–65</ref>