1044-1287 CE
From 1044 to 1287 CE, the Burmese united the Irrawaddy valley under Pagan's thousand temples — Anawrahta seizing Mon scriptures and craftsmen to build a Theravada Buddhist kingdom, his successors raising pagodas until the plain glittered gold from horizon to horizon. For two centuries Pagan dominated mainland Southeast Asia, until Mongol cavalry descended from Yunnan and the kingdom of temples crumbled into warring fragments.