CultureSoutheast Asia
Bagan
Over ten thousand temples on a plain by the Irrawaddy
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The building was driven by a religious economy: raising a temple earned merit for the next life, and land given to temples was exempt from tax. Over time so much of the realm lay under the monasteries that the state could no longer fund itself — a mechanism that felled other Buddhist kingdoms too.
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On a plain in Myanmar the kings of Bagan raised over ten thousand Buddhist temples and pagodas in two centuries. Around two thousand still stand. It is one of the largest concentrations of religious buildings in the world.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org