Anawrahta

King Anawrahta (also Aniruddha Anoarahta and Anoa -ra- hta - soa; Burmese, IPA ənɔja̰t ʰ a) was 1044-1078 ruler of Bagan and the first time united the various kingdoms on the present territory of Burma.

Anawrahta was the son of Kunhsaw Kyaunghpyu, who took over the throne from Nyaung- u Sawrahan and was again overwhelmed by his sons Kyiso and Sokka - te, which forced him to a life as a monk. When Anawrahta had grown up, he challenged the remaining brother Sokka - te to a fight man against man and beat him. Anawrahta then offered his father the ruler of dignity, but she refused and his monastic existence further led. So took Anawrahta in 1044 the throne itself

He made a pilgrimage to Ceylon, from which he returned home to transform his country from Ari Buddhism to Theravada Buddhism. To achieve this goal, he appointed the famous monk from Thaton Arahan as responsible. 1057 came Anawrahta in Thaton under the pretext one that it had refused the loan of Bagan Pali Tipitaka. He returned to the Mon King Manutha back as a hostage to Bagan. Between 1057 and 1059 Anawrahta went with his troops to Nanzhao to seek the Buddha's relics ( a tooth). Upon his return, the Shan chiefs swore allegiance and Anawrahta married Sao Monhla, Princess of Moguang, which was under a Shan chieftain. 1071 Anawrahta received the complete Tipitaka from Sri Lanka. Buddhists from the Dai region in southern Yunnan and Laos, Thailand and India, where Buddhism was at that time suppressed, came to Bagan to studies, as Anawrahta moved the Burmese center for Buddhism from Thaton in the north of the country.

Anawrahta was the founder of Lokananda and the Shwezigon Pagoda in Bagan Nyaung U. or in Within two centuries of Theravada Buddhism became firmly established in Burma and later spread over wide areas of Southeast Asia.

Anawrahta was taken by force by the General Kyanzittha, who was supposedly in love with his bride, a princess of a Mon Empire, from his throne.

In Rangoon the Anawrahta Street recalls in the center of the former rulers of Bagan.