Children play in artificial snow as they visit NightGarden, an annual holiday experience featuring thousands of lights and special effects, at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Friday, November 15, 2024, in Coral Gables, Fla. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

A workman jokes besides a work entitled “Monkey Detonator” by Banksy at Bonhams Auction house on September 16, 2011 in London, England. The piece makes up part of the “Urban Art” sale, and is expected to fetch between £70,000 - £90,000 GBP when it goes under the hammer on September 21, 2001 at Bonhams Auction house in London. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Internally displaced Syrian children stand at the entrance of their makeshift shelter that is an underground cave in Om al-Seer, southern Idlib countryside, Syria December 26, 2015. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

A boy looks back while he and another boy play on a Syrian military tank, destroyed during fighting with the Rebels, in the Syrian town of Azaz, on the outskirts of Aleppo, Sunday, September 2, 2012. (Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP Photo)

A child poses with face painting during the event in Canning, West Bengal on June 15, 2025. For generations Bahurupi artists from West Bengal have been practicing in the art of face painting. Using their painting techniques they can easily metamorphose into different characters during a performance, which often represents tribal myths. These traditional artists scrape a living from their performances, relying on the generosity of audiences for their income. (Photo by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Raining on their New Year's Eve parade. Revellers in Leeds, United Kingdom get ready ready for the new year on December 31, 2022. (Photo by Nb press ltd)

About a dozen dogs traded in their leashes for life vests Saturday for the chance to ride the waves at Jupiter beach as part of a canine surfing competition to raise money for an animal rescue group. Photo: Musso paddles in with Jengo. (Photo by Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post)

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.