The temple-building boom in Bagan was an act of devotion and a form of accumulating merit, with one king envisioning the temples as a 'causeway across the river of Samsara' to help all beings reach enlightenment.

69:15endless cycle of rebirth, and towards eternal enlightenment. By this abundant merit, I desire here nor hereafter no angelic pomp of Brahmas, Suras, Maras, nor the state and splendors of a monarch, nay not even to be the pupil of the conqueror. But I would build a causeway sheer across the river of Samsara, and all folk would speed across thereby until they reached the Blessed City. These temples were held in the highest

69:54reverence. One of the inscriptions at the unfinished Mingun Pahtodawgyi temple, built some time after the Bagan era, contains the following blessings for those who respect the sanctity of the temple, as well as a series of blistering curses against any who damage or desecrate it. Who favors and upholds like me the gift of faith which I thus offer with all my heart? Be he my son, grandson, or any future king who comes after me, queens,

70:27princes, royal ministers high or low, may he be favored above others with the wheel of treasure. May he be endued like King Mandhata with glory, majesty, and power. But whoever spoils even so much as an oil lamp here, may he be oppressed with the eight dangers, the ten punishments, the 32 results of karma, the eight calamities, the 96 diseases. May he be suddenly overtaken with a great affliction which a thousand doctors may

71:01not avail to cure. Having suffered thus for long, generation after generation, when his bodily elements dissolve, may he suffer by going in and out among the eight chief Hells, and the twelve minor Hells, and the 40 limbos of Yama and Lokika. May he suffer with the hosts of demons, titans, and hungry ghosts. Even if he survive all these sufferings, may he revisit five thousand times these lands