Kyaukse irrigation system
Sistema de riego de Kyaukse
- Date
- c. siglos IX-XI · confidence low
- Place
- Kyaukse, Mandalay Region, Myanmar
- Credited to
- Pyu and Burmese peoples; Anawrahta according to the chronicles
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A network of weirs and canals that divert water from the Zawgyi and Panlaung rivers to irrigate the Kyaukse rice plain. It was the granary of the Bagan kingdom and the basis of its power.
Burmese chronicles credit the work to Anawrahta (1044-1077), but part of the system is older and of Pyu origin; the dates come from donation inscriptions and late chronicles.
What it led to
- rice surpluses for the Bagan kingdom
- organisation of land and labour by the Burmese state
- later irrigation works of the Ava and Konbaung kings