Duan Zongbang, the Central Benzhu

Duan Zongbang was a leading member of the Duan clan during the Nanzhao Kingdom, serving as chief minister and general; tradition credits him with campaigns in upper Burma and with bringing a Buddha-tooth relic to Dali. Posthumously he became the most exalted of the Bai patron gods, the Central Benzhu, said to rule the Five Hundred Divine Kings of the region, and was honoured as a remote ancestor of the royal Duan house that later founded the Dali Kingdom.

Domains

• divine overlordship
• war leadership

Powers

• to preside over the regional patron gods as their overlord

Epithets

• 五百神王

Relations

• ancestor of: Duan Siping

Sources

• Megan Bryson, Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017).
• C. P. FitzGerald, The Tower of Five Glories: A Study of the Min Chia of Ta Li, Yunnan (London: The Cresset Press, 1941).