John J. Thatamanil, who emigrated from India to the United States as a child, is assistant professor of theology at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. He teaches courses on Hindu-Christian dialogue and Buddhist-Christian dialogue, and wrote The Immanent Divine: God, Creation and the Human Predicament — An East-West Conversation.

Jonathan Y. Tan, who was born in Malaysia, is a theology professor at Xavier University, Cincinnati. He teaches courses on Islam, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

Irene Lin is associate director of the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.

Adherents.com provides a list of the numbers of people who self-identify as members of major world religions.

The Rev. Jana Drakka is a senior Zen Buddhist priest, calligrapher and community activist. She provides meditation, memorials and harm reduction groups for marginally housed people and those who work with them in San Francisco. She also advocates for the rights of those living in poverty.

Eric Reinders is an associate professor of religion at Emory University in Atlanta. He has written about Buddhist attitudes toward animals.

Shabkar promotes vegetarianism as a way of life for Buddhists of all schools. It is based on the teachings of Shabkar Tsodruk Rangdrol (1781-1851), a Tibetan yogi who espoused vegetarianism.

Read an Aug. 31, 2010, article from the Los Angeles Times about the Dalai Lama’s environmental message to chicken farmers.

Koichi Shinohara is a senior lecturer in the department of religious studies at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. She wrote the entry “Changing Roles of Miraculous Images in Medieval Chinese Buddhism” for the publication Images, Miracles and Authority in Asian Religious Traditions.