History

The Pyu people established themselves in the Irrawaddy valley of central Myanmar around the beginning of the Common Era, probably moving southward from the eastern Tibetan plateau. Their cities were not single-period settlements but long-lived urban centres that evolved over centuries, absorbing and transmitting cultural influences from India along the maritime and overland trade routes connecting South Asia to mainland Southeast Asia.

Beikthano, the oldest of the three UNESCO cities, was occupied from approximately 200 BCE to 600 CE. Its most significant discovery is an early Buddhist monastery enclosure — the oldest identified in all of Southeast Asia — demonstrating that Theravada Buddhism had taken root in this part of the world long before the more famous later kingdoms of Bagan or Angkor. Ceramics found at Beikthano show direct links to northern Indian Buddhist centres.

Sri Ksetra, situated near modern Pyay (Prome) in Bago Region, was the largest and most powerful of the Pyu cities, reaching its peak in the 7th to 9th centuries CE. Its impressive oval city wall, approximately 7 km in circuit, enclosed a palace complex, Buddhist monasteries, and a series of large brick stupas. Among these, the Bawbawgyi Stupa and the Payama Stupa are the best preserved. Nearly 3,000 Pyu texts on metal tablets discovered here represent the oldest surviving inscriptions in Myanmar and provide direct evidence of Sanskrit Buddhist learning at the site.

The Pyu civilisation declined and was ultimately absorbed into emerging Burman kingdoms by the 9th–10th centuries CE. The Bagan kingdom, which would become Myanmar known heritage landmark, emerged partly from the political vacuum left by the Pyu city-states.