Numrich, Paul David. Old Wisdom in the New World: Ameri-
canization in Two Immigrant Theravada Buddhist Temples.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1996.
Prebish, Charles S., and Tanaka, Kenneth K., eds. The Faces of
Buddhism in America.Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1998.
Seager, Richard Hughes. Buddhism in America.New York: Co-
lumbia University Press, 1999.
Smith, Tom W. “Religious Diversity in America: The Emergence
of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Others.” Journal for the
Scientific Study of Religion41 (2002): 577–585.
Tweed, Thomas A. “Night-stand Buddhists and Other Crea-
tures: Sympathizers, Adherents, and the Study of Religion.”
In American Buddhism: Methods and Findings in Recent
Scholarship,ed. Duncan Ryuken Williams and Christopher
S. Queen. Surrey, UK: Curzon, 1999.
Tweed, Thomas A. The American Encounter with Buddhism,
1844–1912: Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent.
Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press,
2000.
Tweed, Thomas A., and Prothero, Stephen, eds. Asian Religions
in America: A Documentary History.New York and Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1999.
THOMASA. TWEEDUPAGUPTA
Upagupta was a Buddhist saint and dharma master
from Northwest India. He is unknown in the Pali
canon, but Sanskrit legends portray him as the fifth pa-
triarch of the Buddhist tradition, in a line that stretches
back through the disciples ANANDAand MAHAKAS ́YAPA
to the Buddha. He is associated with King AS ́OKA(ca.
300–232 B.C.E.), whom he is said to have accompanied
on a pilgrimage, but he is most famous for having
tamed (some say converted) MARA. He is also said to
have been cremated in Mathurawith the wooden tally-
sticks (s ́alaka) of his many disciples.
In Myanmar (Burma), Upagupta is thought not to
have died but to live on, in a meditative trance, in a
pavilion in the midst of the southern ocean. From
there, devotees invite him to come to their village to
protect Buddhist festivals and rituals from disruptions
caused by Mara, and to give people an opportunity to
make merit. When his services are completed, devo-
tees return Upagupta to his watery abode by floating
his image downstream on a raft. His association with
water and nagas is also found in northern Thailand
and Laos, where he is thought to reside in swamps or
river bottoms.
Images of Upagupta commonly depict him as a
seated monk looking up at the sun while eating from
his alms bowl. He is said to have the power to stop the
sun in its course, thus allowing him to eat after noon.
In parts of Southeast Asia, it is thought that, on occa-
sion, he may appear in person as a rough-looking
monk. At such times, it is particularly beneficial to give
him alms.See also:Arhat; Disciples of the BuddhaBibliography
Strong, John S. The Legend and Cult of Upagupta.Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1992.JOHNS. STRONGUPALIUpali, a disciple of S ́akyamuni Buddha, attained the
enlightened status of an ARHAT, or saint. Renowned for
his knowledge of monastic discipline, he recited the
VINAYAat the first Buddhist council in Rajagrha.
Originally, Upali had been a low-caste barber in the
service of the S ́akyan princes. When the princes leave
in order to become monks, Upali also decides to seek
ORDINATION. Upali attains a higher status in the
monastic community than the princes because he is
ordained before them. There are different accounts of
Upali’s ordination in Buddhist literature. According to
the Pali vinaya, the high-caste S ́akyan princes request
that Upali be ordained first so that they can learn to
abandon their attachment to social status. In some Ti-
betan accounts, the arhat and disciple S ́ARIPUTRAen-
courages Upali to seek ordination when Upali hesitates
to do so because of his caste status.
Upali’s mother is credited in the Sanskrit MAHAVASTU
(Great Story) with arranging her son’s first meeting
with the Buddha. All accounts emphasize that caste has
no bearing on a person’s status in the monastic com-
munity. Upali appears in the literature of different
Buddhist schools as an expert on monastic and BO-
DHISATTVAdiscipline. Like other arhats, he was the fo-
cus of worship already in ancient and medieval India.
He figures in different Buddhist schools as the patron
saint of specialists in vinaya. In Burma (Myanmar),
Upali is one of a set of eight arhats propitiated in pro-
tective rituals.See also:Councils, Buddhist; Disciples of the BuddhaUPAGUPTA