And you thought he was a mere movie star.
Steven Seagal has been declared a reincarnated lama and a "tulku" - a sacred vessel of Tibetan Buddhism.Penor Rinpoche, the Supreme Head of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, named Seagal a tulku and a "terton" - someone with the abilities to perceive the root teachings of Tibetan Buddhism - in Feburary in a ceremony at the Namdroling Monastery in India.
Rinpoche's representative in the United States, Khenpo Tsewang Gyatso, called Seagal's spiritual elevation a great honor.
"Seagal had his own vision of having some deeper knowledge in the dharma," Gyatso said from San Francisco.
Some American Buddhists are wondering whether the declaration was made because of Seagal's donations to Rinpoche's school of Buddhism.