Zen expected to become familiar with the classics of the Zen canon". A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Zen masters clearly reveals that they were well versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras, including Madhyamaka. Especially the Lotus Sutra played a large role in the development of East Asian Buddhism, including Zen. Nevertheless, Zen is often pictured as anti-intellectual. This picture of Zen emerged during the Song Dynasty (960–1297), when Chán became the dominant form of Buddhism in China, and gained great popularity among the educated and literary classes of Chinese society. The use of koans, which
Buddhism in the West conversion, Buddhism also became an established minority religion in Latin America in the 20th century, with adherents mostly common from the educated middle classes. According to Frank Usarski, Buddhism remains a statistically small part of South America's religious field, "with around 500,000 practitioners and approximately 600 groups" of which around 27% are Tibetan Buddhists, 25% are Soka Gakkai and 22% are Zen. Japanese immigrants arrived in Latin America at the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century. With the largest population in Latin America, Brazil is also home to the most Buddhists (around 230,000) in Latin America