There he is , invest next to the cash register at your local Chinese restaurant . A shiny bronze statue of a sight - bellied , bald-pated man with a express mirth grinning on his face , the same jolly fella immortalized in keychains , paperweights and other trinkets sell in Chinatown tourist shops .
That ’s the Buddha , right ?
Nope , but you ’re in the right religious ballpark . Westerners can be forgiven for mistaking the ubiquitous chubby figure as the Buddha , since he ’s also call " the Laughing Buddha . " But the on-key story behind the express joy Buddha is nearly as complicated as Buddhism itself .
Denise Leidy is conservator of Asiatic art at theYale University Art Galleryand held the same position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 22 age . She ’s no alien to the confusion over the Laughing Buddha statue .
" In Christianity , there ’s this one guy rope . So when people see this corpulent , fun guy , they mean , ' That ’s the Buddha , ' but it ’s not , " says Leidy . " TheBuddha , in the singular form , is Siddhartha Gautama . But the Buddhist religion over clock time has become so complicated and has added multiple layers of immortal , many of whom have multiple embodiment . So it ’s vex brain - boggle complicated and only crazy people like myself spend their lives figuring it out . "
TheBuddha , as Leidy cite , was a man name Siddhartha Gautama who lived around the6th 100 B.C.E. in India . Born a flush prince , he opt to live as an ascetic in search of the meaning of existence , which he obtain while contemplate for 49 Clarence Day under the Bodhi tree diagram .
After achievingnirvana , which is the flight from the endless bike of suffering , death and rebirth , Siddhartha Gautama became Buddha or the " waken one . " Over the century , his precept circularise throughout India , into China , across Asia and eventually around the public . Today , there are an estimated376 million followersof Buddhism worldwide .
So, Who Is the Laughing Buddha?
As Leidy indicated , however , Buddhism has expanded over the millennia to let in a pantheon of deities in add-on to Gautama Buddha . Those let in numerousbodhisattvas , the terminal figure for sagelike individual who ferment for the enlightenment of all sentient beings . In Theravada Buddhism , practiced chiefly in Southeast Asia , Gautama Buddha is only the most late of28 Buddhasdescribed in holy texts . And then there areavatars , human believe to be personification of deities .
The Laughing Buddha , it turn out , was one such embodiment , a 10th - century Chinese monk bring up Budai . According to accounts write 100 afterward , Budai was a gregarious , raft - bellied Thelonious Monk who wind from village to village carry a expectant dismission over his berm . ( Budaimeans " material sack " in Chinese . ) He was beloved by children and the misfortunate , to whom he would give Elmer Leopold Rice and sweet from his sack .
On his deathbed , Budai penned a poem in which he disclose himself as the incarnation of Maitreya , a deity also know as the " Future Buddha . "
" In our life , this swell cosmic geological era you and I are sharing , there is a ' teach Buddha ' named Siddhartha Gautama or Shakyamuni , " explain Leidy . " The human beings will ultimately destruct itself ; I do n’t know when . But when the world is reborn , Maitreya will follow back as the teaching Buddha of that era . "
Over time , Budai became a subject of popular devotion in Zen Buddhism , both in China and in Japan , where he goes by the name Hotei . His large belly and sack are believed to represent abundance , and he is included among theSeven favorable Gods of Japanas a forerunner of abundance and good health . At some degree , he also became the frequenter deity of restaurateur and bartenders , hence his prized location next to the cash register .
Leidy is n’t sure of the accurate historical place of origin of today ’s Laughing Buddha statues , but she believes that Bodai imagery in Formosan art and carving start popping up in the fifteenth century .
" As ball-shaped trade begins to expand in late sixteenth and seventeenth one C , and porcelain is entirely translate spherical ceramics , there ’s probably some imagery of this hombre that snuck in , " says Leidy . " It got pick up in the West , turned into the Laughing Buddha , and made into this schmaltzy thing you could buy anywhere . "
Although rubbing the Budai ’s belly for good luck is not a Buddhist teaching , devotees of Buddhism do n’t seem to have a trouble with this chubby statue . " It is indicative of Buddhism ’s broad tolerance of diverseness that this laughing Buddha of folklore is accepted into the official practice , " indite Barbara O’Brien , a journalist and Zen Buddhism pupil . " For Buddhists , any calibre that represents Buddha - nature is to be encourage , and the folklore of the kind , laughing Buddha is not reckon as any sort of desecration , even though masses unknowingly may confuse him with Shakyamuni Buddha . "
