A prosperous Pasadena artist wanted for allegedly stealing nearly $8 million in China has built an empire of devoted disciples in California based on the claim that he is the reincarnation of Buddha.

Now known as His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III, the native of the Sichuan province leads an obscure sect of Buddhists with followers in San Francisco and the San Gabriel Valley who believe he can perform miracles and create masterpieces worth millions of dollars.

Despite a following that some say spans the globe, most experts on Buddhism and in the art world did not know of him. One academic feared speaking publicly about him because of his “connections” in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and China, which include the heads of multimillion dollar corporations.

“I don’t know how it even grew so big,” said the Southern California professor. “It is just weird, to be honest. Even for someone who studies Chinese religion for a living. He is still pretty well connected in China, despite everything that has happened.”

The expert on Chinese Buddhism called the organization “suspicious” and questioned the money flowing to Buddha. In March, the sale of one of his ink drawings for $16.5 million shocked the art world, with one dealer calling the sale extraordinary.

Buddha has received accolades from dozens of local, state and federal legislators — including the late U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, Los Angeles County supervisors Hilda Solis and Michael Antonovich and then-Assemblywoman Judy Chu of Monterey Park — for his religious and artistic prowess.

The bulk of the praise came to Wan Ko Yee — Buddha’s name before he changed it — at a time when Interpol sought his arrest. His followers spent roughly $120,000 on lobbyists over the past 10 years to get recognition from Congress for him, his children and his wife, according to Congressional records.

Rep. Chu has distanced herself from Buddha since being elected to Congress. “I am deeply disappointed that my certificate, given under a different name and different circumstances, is being used to mislead people,” she said.

In 2011, Congressman Lester Wolff, D-New York, presented Buddha with a “World Peace Prize” for his accomplishments. The prize has not been given since, according to the award’s Chief Judge Father Sean McManus, who noted more than 10 Congress members in attendance at the ceremony in Washington, D.C. The award’s website also lists Np Seng, a Macau mogul, as a past recipient. Federal investigators in a 1996 Congressional hearing testified that Seng funneled foreign money to the Democratic National Committee through a Chinese-American restaurateur with ties to President Bill Clinton.

Buddah’s followers deny any wrongdoing by their leader and say he is misunderstood and his good works are misrepresented by those who mean to discredit him.

Wanted Buddha

The Chinese government confirmed April 14 that Buddha, previously known as both Yi Yungao and Wan Ko Yee, is still wanted in his home country.

“From 1984 onwards, Yi and his accomplices committed fraud by means of deception, causing losses of CNY 60.8 million (USD $7.32 million),” wrote Zhu Haiquan, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Helou “Vincent” Huang, a representative of the Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, a nonprofit based in Monterey Park, said the Chinese government falsified the charges.

“The Chinese government slandered him,” Huang said during a telephone interview April 16, while accompanying Buddha on a speaking tour in Miami.

He said Buddha, then Yungao, was involved in a land dispute in 2002 where two or more property owners said they were defrauded by him. Huang said the men recanted after they left China.

Huang, who called the charges “political,” described Buddha as a “good person with a high moral character.” He said Buddha has not returned to China since leaving in 1999.

Los Angeles Human Rights Attorney Peter Schey in 2008 represented Buddha, then Yee, before an Interpol commission that ultimately rescinded a worldwide notice calling for his apprehension.

“The arrest warrant was motivated by a desire on the part of the Chinese government to persecute him as a result of his religious activities,” Schey said.

The Buddha Business

Buddha came to the United States in 1999 because of his love of the country, according to Huang. Public records show Buddha and his wife, Yuhau Wang, purchased a $2 million home in Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco that same year. Followers from the International Buddhism Sangha Association now live in a nearby home.

Buddah’s wife, son and daughter are also listed as residents of two homes in an affluent Long Island community, according to WhitePages.com.

Zhaxi Zhuoma, formerly Carol Welker of Ohio, uprooted her life to come to California in the early 2000s after learning of Buddha from an acupuncturist. The operator of the Xuanfa Institute in Sanger, 13 miles east of Fresno, is building a temple in his honor and travels the world to spread his messages.

“He just radiates this incredible, compassionate love,” Zhuoma said. “Everything that I’ve seen of him has been to help living beings, I haven’t seen anything that is selfish.”

She described Buddha as a “holy being” who can cure ailments, conjure nectar and move objects with his mind.

“Our master can do all sorts of miraculous things, although he would deny it because we’re not supposed to talk about those things,” she said.

Temples, nonprofits, museums and dozens of businesses — many handling millions of dollars per year — exist throughout California and the San Gabriel Valley with ties to Buddha.

Two museums, which each list more than $2 million in assets, display Buddha’s artwork for free to the public.

The Master Yi Yungao International Cultural Institute showed up in Alhambra in the 1990s, was rebranded under Wan Ko Yee in 2004, then reopened in Covina as the H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III Cultural and Art Museum last year, according to IRS filings.The grand opening of Buddha’s Covina museum drew elected officials including Sen. Ed Hernandez, Sheriff Jim McDonnell, Walnut Councilwoman Mary Su and Covina Councilman Walt Allen III. The museum donated a combined $65,000 to the Covina Police Department and the city’s public library, according to financial records.

In San Francisco, Buddha started the International Art Museum of America. Wang, Buddha’s wife, who serves as the head of the nonprofit’s board, according to IRS records. Buddha served as its chairman during its inception.

In Demand

In the last three years, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III has made millions of dollars through the sale of his artwork.

On March 22, Buddha’s “Ink Lotus” ink painting sold for $16.5 million, breaking the record for a single piece of art sold at Gianguan Auctions, an auction house specializing in Asian art located on Madison Avenue in New York City, confirmed Mary Ann Lum, the auction house business manager.

The art was sold to a Caucasian man from California, who insisted on remaining anonymous, Lum said. The money was placed in escrow and the sale was approved last week, she confirmed on April 16.

Huang, Buddha’s spokesman, said Buddha donates the money from his artwork to help his community, Buddhist institutions and victims of natural disasters.

Greg Brown, a licensed appraiser who specializes in Asian art, prints and antiques and who once appraised items from the Titanic, had not heard of Buddha nor his work until a reporter’s inquiry.

But Brown said Buddha is a talented artist who may be tapping into a thirst from Chinese-Americans to buy back some of their heritage stolen during China’s Cultural Revolution.

“Chinese art is one of the hot markets on the planet now,” Brown said. “And this is the next step in Chinese painting.”

Lum agreed, saying “Ink Lotus” adds a western style of painting to ancient Chinese ink-and-color paintings. It is representative of an emerging genre of 1940s Chinese artists from Shanghai.

“When you first look at the painting, it looks like a mess. But when you stand back, you can see order and discipline. Some say there is something that transpires you into a different world and gives you inner calm.

“It has to do with religion, but not totally,” Lum said.

The auction began at $10 million, the appraised value. Bidders from Paris, Thailand and California competed for the right to take home the painting, she said.

Many of his earlier works hang on museum walls. But they are not for sale, Lum said.

And since Buddha has put down his paint brush, any individual release would be rare and would increase the value of his art, she said.

“If you find one, I’ll buy it,” she said, adding, “I’ll fly to Covina tomorrow.”