Water, Ritual, and Prosperity at the Medieval Capital of Bagan, Myanmar (11th to 14th Centuries CE): Preliminary Exploration of the Tuyin-Thetso "Water Mountain" and the Nat Yekan Sacred Water Tank

Summary

The IRAW@Bagan project is aimed at developing an integrated socio-ecological history for residential patterning, agricultural practices, and water management at the Medieval Burmese (Bama) capital of Bagan, Myanmar (11th to 14th century CE). As part of this long-term research program investigations have been initiated on the Tuyin-Thetso mountain range, located 11.25 km southeast of Bagan’s walled and moated epicenter. This upland area figures prominently in the chronicles of early Bagan, and numerous 13th century religious monuments were erected there. Recent explorations on Tuyin-Thetso have drawn attention to an additional feature of historical significance, a rock-cut tank located along the eastern edge of the Thetso-Taung ridge. Referred to by local villagers as Nat Yekan (Spirit Lake), this reservoir appears to have been integral not only to the initial collection and subsequent redistribution of water via a series of interconnected canals and reservoirs spread across the Bagan plain, but also, through its associated iconographic imagery, it may have been intended to purify this water, symbolically enhancing its fertility. This presentation will provide a preliminary assessment of Nat Yekan’s potential economic, political, religious, and ideological significance during Bagan’s classical era.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 19977