Years ago, whenever my friend Elaine encountered a small Buddha statue, she’d rub its belly for good luck. It was a round pot-belly, smooth and exposed, likely touched too many times by too many people with wishes of prosperity – even just for fun.
I came across a whole lot of those Buddha-like figurines recently, all neatly lined up on a table at an auction house. They looked to be made out of plaster, some of which was showing through in spots on their dusty bodies. I hadn’t seen one of those in years, but when I saw them, the image of Elaine’s fingers on the belly came into my head.
When I Googled to learn more about these Buddhas, I learned that they were not Buddhas at all. The Buddhas I saw on the web were Indian figures, thin and serene, with beaded hair that mimicked curls.
The figures at auction resembled “Laughing Buddhas,” heavy-set figures with bald heads that had no connection to the spiritual leader from Indian culture. These looked like images of Budai, a later arrival who was part of Chinese culture. But most were not laughing and were fully clothed with no exposed bellies; in fact, many of the expressions were meditative.
That made me wonder if these were Budais. Then I came across an Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma and saw that these figures closely resembled him, especially the shape of the foreheads on some of them. He lived during the 5th and 6th century and was the founder of Chan (Zen) Buddhis, which he brought to China.
No one seems to know what the true Buddha looked like (or even his true history). The figures we see are representations. The first images presented him as a sign (including footprints), followed by a human form. Born Siddhartha Gautama, he was a monk who is believed to have lived in ancient India between the 6th and 4th centuries B.C. His teachings and writings are said to have been written down by his followers hundreds of years after his death.
He was said to have been born rich but gave it all up after his awakening to what he considered the path to truth: to put it simply, moderation. He then became Buddha or “Enlightened One,” and is known as Gautama Buddha.
His is the Middle Path, rejecting both luxury and asceticism. Buddhism proposes a life of good thoughts, good intentions, and straight living, all with the ultimate aim of achieving nirvana, release from earthly existence. For most beings, nirvana lies in the distant future, because Buddhism, like other faiths of India, believes in a cycle of rebirth. Humans are born many times on earth, each time with the opportunity to perfect themselves further. And it is their own karma—the sum total of deeds, good and bad—that determines the circumstances of a future birth.
Gautama Buddha figures are shown with various hand positions – called mudras – that are each symbolic.
The Laughing Buddha was said to be a monk who lived during the 10th century in China. He is known as Budai or Hotei in Japanese. He usually is shown as a jolly figure carrying a cloth sack with all his possessions because he is poor, yet contented. Budai is also said to be the future Buddha.
