movement, who urged low caste Indian Dalits to convert to Buddhism. Other Indian figures include Rahul Sankrityayan (1893-1963), Dharmanand Kosambi (1876-1941) and Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan. In Burma, a central modern figure is King Mindon (r. 1853–1878), who convened the 5th Buddhist council (1868–71), where different editions of the Pali Canon were cross-checked and a final version was inscribed on 729 stone slabs, currently still the world's largest book. A new meditation movement arose in Burma, called the Vipassana movement, beginning with figures such as Medawi (1728–1816), who was instrumental in the promotion of Buddhist meditation practices. In 1956, Burmese politician U Nu presided over a sixth council, which saw monks from various Theravada countries produce another new edition of the Pali Canon. Recently, Buddhist monks have become involved in political protest movements such as the Saffron Revolution of 2007. Thailand, which was the only country to avoid colonization, had two important Buddhist kings, who pushed for modernization and reformation of the Buddhist sangha. They were King Mongkut (r. 1851–68), and his son King Chulalongkorn (r. 1868–1910), who were responsible for several key modern reforms of Thai Buddhism. Two recent Thai modernist movements are the monastic revival of the Thai forest tradition and the Wat Phra Dhammakāya movement. From 1893, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were all French colonies. The Communists came to power in Laos in 1975. There was no widespread repression of the Buddhist sangha, but the communist government has sought to control the Sangha and use it as a tool to spread its ideology. In Cambodia however, the communist terror of the Khmer Rouge during 1975–79 caused much damage to the Buddhist sangha. East Asia The opening of Japan in 1853 by Admiral Perry and the Meiji Restoration of 1868 led to the end of feudal Japan and rapid modernization. A new form of State Shinto arose as a strong competitor to Buddhism when it was adopted by the Japanese government. In 1872, the Japanese government decreed that Buddhist clerics could marry. These changes led to modernization efforts by Japanese Buddhism which saw the setting up of publishing houses and the study of Western philosophy and scholarship. In the post-war period, Japanese new religions arose, many of them influenced by Buddhism. Chinese Buddhism meanwhile, suffered much destruction during the Christian-inspired Taiping rebellion (1850–64), but saw a modest revival during the Republican period (1912–49). A key figure was Taixu (T’ai-hsü,