The forgotten Pyu heartland — walled cities and Buddhist stupas of the civilisation that preceded Bagan by a thousand years
Pyay (formerly Prome) is a town on the Irrawaddy River in central Myanmar that serves as the gateway to the Pyu Ancient Cities UNESCO World Heritage Site (2014) — the first Myanmar site on the list. The Pyu were an Austroasiatic-speaking people who built the first urban civilisation in mainland Southeast Asia between the 2nd century BCE and 9th century CE, establishing walled cities at Halin, Beikthano, and Sri Ksetra (the largest, 3km southeast of Pyay). Sri Ksetra — covering over 56 square kilometres and protected by massive earthen walls — was the Pyu capital from around the 5th to 9th cen…
The Pyu civilisation (c.200 BCE–900 CE) was the first urban society in the territory that became Myanmar — their cities preceded Bagan by nearly a millennium. The Pyu maintained direct diplomatic relations with the Tang Dynasty of China (the Chinese records of a Pyu musical delegation in 802 CE are among the earliest detailed descriptions of mainland Southeast Asian court culture). The Pyu script, deciphered in the 19th century, was the ancestor of Burmese script. The civilisation collapsed following raids by the Nanzhao kingdom from Yunnan in the 9th century, and its urban centres were aband…