Originally， a Indian or Ceylonese stupa had a hemispheric body （Pali： anda， "the egg"） on which a rectangular harmika surrounded by a stone balustrade was set. Extending up from the top of the stupa was a shaft supporting several ceremonial umbrellas. The stupa is a representation of the Buddhist cosmos： its shape symbolizes Mount Meru while the umbrella mounted on the brickwork represents the world’s axis.
The original Indic design was gradually modified first by the Pyu， and then by Burmans at Pagan where the stupa gradually developed a longer， cylindrical form. The earliest Pagan stupas such as the Bupaya （c. 9th century） were the direct descendants of the Pyu style at Sri Ksetra. By the 11th century， the stupa had developed into a more bell-shaped form in which the parasols morphed into a series of increasingly smaller rings placed on one top of the other， rising to a point. On top of the rings， the new design replaced the harmika with a lotus bud. The lotus bud design then evolved into the "banana bud"， which forms the extended apex of most Burmese pagodas. Three or four rectangular terraces served as the base for a pagoda， often with a gallery of terra-cotta tiles depicting Buddhist jataka stories. The Shwezigon Pagoda and the Shwesandaw Pagoda are the earliest examples of this type. Examples of the trend toward a more bell-shaped design gradually gained primacy as seen in the Dhammayazika Pagoda （late 12th century） and the Mingalazedi Pagoda （late 13th century）.
建筑：绝美的蒲甘寺庙群
蒲甘王国因其独特的建筑而闻名天下，有2000座幸存下来的庙宇点缀着今天的蒲甘平原。另一方面，对于后期的缅甸国家来说，非宗教的蒲甘建筑也同样重要。
蒲甘能够脱颖而出，不仅是因为众多的宗教寺院，还因为宏伟的建筑，以及人们对缅甸寺庙设计所作出的贡献。蒲甘寺庙分为两大类：佛塔风格的坚实寺庙和古代风格的空心寺庙。
佛塔也叫宝塔，是一个庞大的建筑，通常里面有一个文物室。蒲甘佛塔或宝塔是由早期骠人的设计演变而来，而骠人设计的塔则是建立在安得拉地区的佛塔设计基础之上的，特别是阿马拉瓦蒂地区和今天的印度东南部的那伽尔朱纳康达地区，也包括少许的锡兰地区。就象征手法、形式、设计、建筑技术和材料而言，蒲甘时代的佛塔其原型又是后来的缅甸佛塔。
最初的印度或锡兰佛塔上都有一个半球体（巴利文：安达，“鸡蛋”），其上有一个矩形的哈米嘎，四周围绕着一圈石栏杆。从佛塔的顶端扩展而去，有一根支撑着几个礼仪伞的拍杆。佛塔是佛教宇宙的代表性建筑，其形状象征着须弥山，而安装在砖墙上的伞代表着世界的轴心。
当初，骠人逐渐修改了原始的印度设计，接着蒲甘的缅甸人也对佛塔设计进行了修改，将其变成更长的圆柱形。最早的蒲甘佛塔是斯里兰卡的骠人风格佛塔的直接演变产物，布巴雅塔（公元9世纪建成）就是其中的一个代表。到了11世纪，佛塔已演变得更加类似于钟的形状，阳伞也演变成一系列越来越小的环环相扣到顶点的小圆环，在小圆环顶端，新的莲花花蕾设计取代了哈米嘎。莲花花蕾设计后来演变成“香蕉月牙”，镶嵌在大多数缅甸佛塔的前端。塔下有三四个矩形露台作为宝塔的基底，露台往往配有一个画廊，人们在赤陶砖上描绘佛教本生经故事。瑞喜宫塔和瑞山陀塔是这种佛塔的最早建筑，后来更加趋向于钟形设计的最早代表是首辅塔（建于12世纪末）和明噶拉塔（建于13世纪末）。
Languages and Scripts：Pyu， Mon， Pali and Sanskrit
The primary language of the ruling class of Pagan was Burmese， a Tibeto-Burman language related to both the Pyu language and the language of the ruling class of Nanzhao. But the spread of the language to the masses lagged the founding of the Pagan Empire by 75 to 150 years. In the early Pagan era， both Pyu and Mon were lingua francas of the Irrawaddy valley. Pyu was the dominant language of Upper Burma while Mon was sufficiently prestigious for Pagan rulers to employ the language frequently for inions and perhaps court usages. Inional evidence indicates that Burmese became the lingua franca of the kingdom only in the early 12th century， and perhaps in the late 12th century the use of Pyu and Mon in official usage declined. Mon continued to flourish in Lower Burma but Pyu as a language had died out by the early 13th century.
Another important development in Burmese history and Burmese language was the rise of Pali， the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism. The use of Sanskrit， which had been prevalent in the Pyu realm and in the early Pagan era， declined after Anawrahta’s conversion to Theravada Buddhism.
