Sagaing Kingdom: Map & History

History

At the end of the 13th century, Sagaing was the northernmost vassal state of Myinsaing, the polity that succeeded Pagan in Central Burma. The northern province included the Mu valley, one of the three main granaries of the Irrawaddy valley. To the north of Sagaing lay the Province of Zhengmian of the Mongol Empire—present-day northern Burma and southwestern Yunnan, which the Mongols had wrested away from the Pagan Empire since the 1280s. The Mongols launched another invasion in 1300–01 but could not break through and quit northern Burma altogether in 1303.

Myinsaing's rulers—Athinkhaya, Yazathingyan and Thihathu—raced to regain northern Burma but got no further than Tagaung.

Government and society

Sagaing kings employed Pagan's administrative model of solar polities in which the high king ruled the core while semi-independent tributaries, autonomous viceroys, and governors actually controlled day-to-day administration and manpower. To be sure, Sagaing used the system in a far smaller scale than Pagan as its effective territory was small. (Although Sagaing claimed all the way to the border of Manipur, its effective control may have been no more than half today's Sagaing Region, without the Shan state of Kalay in the upper Chindwin region or anything beyond Tagaung, 225 km from Sagaing, the northernmost fort mentioned in the chronicles.)