Ambience backstage and frontstagen at the Y Project fashion show during the Spring Summer 2024 Collections in Paris, France on October 1 30 2023. (Photo by Jonas Gustavsson for The Washington Post)

A model wears a creation for the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2024 womenswear fashion collection presented Monday, October 2, 2023 in Paris. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/AP Photo)

A hummingbird drinks from a flower in a garden on the outfield lawn before a spring training baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Athletics, Monday, February 24, 2025, in Surprise, Ariz. (Photo by Lindsey Wasson/AP Photo)

A woman poses for a photo shoot with the blossom flowers decorated at Ritan Park during the Spring season in Beijing, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

A mandarin duck swims through reflections of spring growth and blossom on a pond in Richmond Park in London, Britain on April 28, 2025. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

On the morning of the February 18th, 2025, a foreign tourist wearing a scarf walks past a store window with spring clothes hanging on the street in Myeongdong, Seoul. (Photo by Park Seong-won)

In this image provided by the Ministry of Defence, Prince William takes the controls of a Sea King helicopter on April 14, 2011 in Holyhead, Wales. Search and rescue co-pilot Prince William, based at RAF Valley will marry his fiancee Catherine Middleton in Westminster Abbey in London on April 29, 2011. (Photo by MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images)

The Kingdom of Pagan (also commonly known as the Pagan Dynasty and the Pagan Empire) was the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-day Burma (Myanmar). Pagan's 250-year rule over the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery laid the foundation for the ascent of Burmese language and culture, the spread of Burman ethnicity in Upper Burma, and the growth of Theravada Buddhism in Burma and in mainland Southeast Asia.