Ngasaunggyan, Battle of

▪ Myanmar history

      (1277), Mongol defeat of Burmese troops that led to the demise of the Pagan dynasty of Myanmar (Burma). After unifying China, the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan sent envoys to neighbouring kingdoms, obliging them to accept Mongol vassalage. The Pagan king Narathihapate (reigned 1254–87) shunned the first Mongol embassy and massacred the members of the second. Confident of victory because of recent Burmese conquests of the territory up to Nanchao, Narathihapate advanced boldly into Yunnan in 1277, accompanied by scores of elephants and soldiers. He met the Mongol troops at Ngasaunggyan, where he was decisively defeated. Thereafter Burmese opposition disintegrated. The border fortresses near Bhamo fell in 1283, thus opening the Irrawaddy River valley to invasion. Narathihapate fled southward to Bassein, where he decided to submit to Mongol vassalage, but he was assassinated by his son in 1287. The Mongols, in full control as far south as Pagan, installed a puppet in Myanmar in 1289, thus extinguishing the power of the Pagan dynasty.

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