these degrees are fully accredited for those who disrobe
and serve as military chaplains. Thai law prescribes
penalties on those who impersonate a monk.
There have also been explicitly Buddhist political
parties. SOKA GAKKAI, a Nichiren Shoshu-derived
movement founded in 1930 in Japan, has been politi-
cally active, especially after World War II. In 1964 Soka
Gakkai leader Ikeda Daisaku established the political
party Komeito, formally unaffiliated but closely
aligned with Soka Gakkai. Officially dissolved in 1994
but reformed in 1998 as the New Komeito, it has re-
mained small but influential. In Sri Lanka as well, Bud-
dhist nationalism has become a powerful political
force. In India, the lawyer and politician B. R. AMBED-
KAR(1891–1956) campaigned for the rights of un-
touchables, and shortly before his death led a mass
conversion to Buddhism. There has also been a global
mobilization of Tibetan Buddhist adherents against the
Chinese occupation of Tibet. These and many other
cases show that despite elements of other-worldly
rhetoric, Buddhism is easily enlisted in political causes.
See also:Communism and Buddhism; Councils, Bud-
dhist; Japanese Royal Family and Buddhism; King-
ship; Law and Buddhism; Meiji Buddhist Reform;
Millenarianism and Millenarian Movements; Monas-
tic Militias; Nationalism and Buddhism; Shinto
(Honji Suijaku) and Buddhism
Bibliography
Orzech, Charles D. Politics and Transcendent Wisdom: The Scrip-
ture for Humane Kings in the Creation of Chinese Buddhism.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.
Smith, Bardwell L., ed. Religion and the Legitimation of Power
in South Asia.Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1978.
Smith, Bardwell L., ed. Religion and Legitimation of Power in Sri
Lanka.Chambersburg, PA: ANIMA, 1978.
Smith, Bardwell L., ed. Religion and Legitimation of Power in
Thailand, Laos, and Burma.Chambersburg, PA: ANIMA,
1978.
Tambiah, Stanley J. World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A
Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Histori-
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Press, 1976.
Teiser, Stephen. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China.Prince-
ton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.
Zürcher, E. The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and
Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China.Leiden,
Netherlands: Brill, 1959.
ERICREINDERS
PORTRAITURERepresentations of MONKS, NUNS, and members of the
LAITYflourished in East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist
traditions. In pre-Buddhist Han China, portraits of
exemplary figures past and present derived from his-
torical, biographical, and eulogistic texts. Ancient
Chinese concepts of portraitare encompassed by the
words xiang(Japanese, zo), zhen(Japanese, shin), and
ying(Japanese, ei). Where a caption named a figure,
both words and image called to mind the larger story
of that individual; a likeness was not essential. Yet
most modern definitions of portraiture mandate that
the subject be an individual, and that the representa-
tion be based on observed reality. Within Buddhist
contexts, the word xiangalso denotes BUDDHA IMAGES
(foxiang; Japanese, butsuzo), as well as representations
of local deities (shen; Japanese, kami). Combinations
like zhenxiang(Japanese, shinzo), and yingxiang(Japan-
ese, eizo) stress the importance of resemblance and
truth, not merely to appearances but also to the spirit.
Like devotional icons, portraits consecrated in formal
ceremonies embodied the living aura of their subjects.
As such, they too, served as the focus of offerings and
ceremonies.Lineages and patriarchs
In China early Buddhist portraiture featured genealo-
gies or lineages that trace a particular history of dharma
transmission. At the Kanjingsi cave chapel at LONG-
MEN(ca. 720–730), a procession of twenty-nine patri-
archs of the “western lands” (i.e., India) carved in
larger than life relief surround the central image of
S ́akyamuni. This artificial group, found in a text of the
Northern CHAN SCHOOL, begins with S ́akyamuni’s se-
nior disciple MAHAKAS ́YAPAand ends with BODHI-
DHARMA, putative founder of Chan in China. Although
individually lifelike and varied, these depictions recall
the Han tradition of exemplar portraits. LINEAGEpor-
traits, in both painting and sculpture, spread to both
Japan and Tibet. In mid-eighth century Japan at
Todaiji, the patriarchs of each of the six competing
schools of Buddhism were painted on wooden cabi-
nets holding sutras promoted by each school. Zhang
Shengwen’s Long Roll of Buddhist Images(1173–1176,
National Palace Museum, Taipei), painted for the
kingdom of Dali in southwestern China, incorporated
a succession of Chan portraits showing each master
seated in a landscape setting. In Tibet, the founders of
the four Tibetan orders appeared as the large central
figure in thang kas(thanka; painted hanging scrolls),PORTRAITURE