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What Made the Bagan Temples Outlast Their Dynasty? - The Buddhist Merit Economy of Pagan | Sleepy Facts About History
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In one of the driest regions of Asia, a medieval kingdom learned to capture monsoon water in an extensive network of weirs and canals. Yet the agricultural surplus generated by this hydraulic infrastructure was not channeled into armies or royal treasuries. Instead, it flowed into a religious economy based on the Theravada Buddhist concept of merit, funding the construction of thousands of brick temples across the central Burmese plain. This episode examines how the Pagan kingdom bound…
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