King Kyansittha has successfully melded the diverse cultural influences introduced into Pagan by Anawrahta's conquests.

He has patronized Mon scholars and artisans who have emerged as the intellectual elite.

He has appeased the Pyus by linking his genealogy to the real and mythical ancestors of Sri Ksetra, the symbol of the Pyu golden past, and by calling the kingdom Pyu, even though it had been ruled by a Burman ruling class.

He supports and favors Theravada Buddhism while tolerating other religious groups.

To be sure, he has pursued these policies all the while maintaining the Burman military rule.

By the end of his twenty-eight-year reign, Pagan has emerged a major power alongside the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia, recognized as a sovereign kingdom by the Chinese Song Dynasty, and the Indian Chola Dynasty.

Several diverse elements—art, architecture, religion, language, literature, ethnic plurality—have begun to synthesize.

His grandson and successor was born Zeyathura Sithu to Sawyun (son of King Sawlu) and Shwe Einthi (daughter of King Kyansittha) on December 13, 1089.

At Sithu's birth, Kyansittha, who had thought that he had no son, had been so delighted that he had crowned the infant as king, and presented the baby to the people saying "Behold your king!

Henceforth, I reign only as his regent."

(It turned out that Kyansittha did have a son by a wife during one of his exiles in the 1070s.

That son, Yazakumar, makes no claims of the throne.)

Following the death of Kyansittha in 1112 or 1113, Sithu faces no opposition to the throne.

His coronation is presided over by an aging Primate Shin Arahan who had also presided over the coronations of the two predecessor kings, and has been adviser to three previous kings.