Have you ever felt that the fat buddha that you can buy in various shops was somehow a little too common, too vulgar when compared to the serene, calm and wise Buddha that you are normally used to? The Straight Dope has an answer:
The fat, laughing guy isn’t the capital-B Buddha but a lesser buddha called Hotei (or Miroku or Miluo or Budai or Putai, depending on language). The model for Hotei was (probably) a cheerful, overweight Chinese zen monk or healer who wandered the countryside helping people circa 950 AD. In Asia the belly is one’s spiritual center and source of power, so rubbing the laughing buddha’s belly brings good luck, and is as close to achieving buddha nature as most of us will get.
And here’s some more information that you did no have (and probably did not want):
- The earlobes [of any Buddha statue] are elongated, partly to indicate the Buddha is all-hearing and partly as a reminder of the heavy earrings that weighed them down before Siddhartha renounced material things to seek enlightenment.
- The Buddha’s head is usually enlarged (sometimes by a large bump on top) to symbolize wisdom; a jewel in the bump denotes brilliance.