The Bagan Empire's decline was caused by the same forces that had enabled its rise: the immense wealth and land accumulation by the tax-exempt Buddhist church, which gradually impoverished the state.

90:03following terms. The kingdom of Bagan declined because the factors that had nurtured it in the first place became in time forces that contradicted and destroyed it. The seeds that sowed the destruction of Bagan are what earlier made its success possible, and the institutions that led to prosperity and power eventually involuted and impoverished the state. What had been a blessing became a curse. But because Bagan society was unable and

90:40unwilling to change what were once constructive forces when they became destructive ones, the political power of the dynasty collapsed. By the reign of a king named Htilominlo, who ruled in the early 13th century, it's clear that the royal treasury was struggling. He was the last king of Bagan to build any significant temples, although he did so mostly in remote regions away from the capital. The kings who followed would be

91:14apparently penniless, and no great constructions would go up after this period. When discussing the collapse of societies, historians often talk about what they call the remote origins of the collapse. These are slow, broad trends that build up over time, cracks that begin to appear and wear away at the structure, sometimes invisible, and then there's what they call the immediate origins. This is the wrecking ball that comes swinging in and

91:53delivers one decisive blow that reverberates through the cracked and weakened structure and sends the whole thing shattering into smithereens. The state of Bagan’s reduced ability to Marshal its land and resources was not fatal by itself, but it left it increasingly vulnerable to outside events. In the year 1258, a series of rebellions began in South Arakan and Martaban, and posed a challenge to the empire. With as much as two-thirds of its land held by the church, the Bagan state