Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Bogebaum here with another classic episode for you. In this one, we're talking about the deities sometimes depicted next to cash registers in Chinese American restaurants, The Laughing Buddha. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bogle Bam Here. You've probably seen him seated next to the cash register at your local Chinese American restaurant, A shiny bronze statue of a bald, p bellied man with a laughing grin on his face.
The same jolly fella immortalized in key chains and other trinkets sold in Chinatown tourist shops all across the US. That's not the Buddha, but it's in the right religious ballpark. He's called the Laughing Buddha, and the story behind him is complicated. We spoke with Denise Lady, currently the Curator of Asian Art at the Yale University Art Gallery. She held the same position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for twenty two years and is no stranger to Westerners
can fusion over the Laughing Buddha statue. She said, in Christianity, there's this one guy. So when people see this fun guy, they think that's the Buddha. But it's not. The Buddha in the singular is Saddarka Gultma. But the Buddhist religion over time has added multiple layers of deities, many of whom have multiple avatars, and so it's gotten mind bogglingly complicated. Buddha, the story goes, was a man named Saddarka Gultma who
lived around the sixth century b c. In India. Born a wealthy prince, he chose to live an ascetic lifestyle in search of the meaning of existence, which he found while meditating for forty days under a fig tree. After achieving nirvana, which is the escape from the endless cycle of suffering, death and rebirth, he became the Buddha, or the awakened One. Over the centuries, his teachings spread throughout India,
into China, across Asia, and eventually around the world. Today there aren't estimated three hundred and seventy six million followers of Buddhism worldwide, But so who is the laughing Buddha. Buddhism has expanded over the millennia to include a pantheon of deities. In addition, to Gotma Buddha. Those include numerous bodhisatva, the term for sage like individuals who work for the enlightenment of all sentient beings. In Thetavad Buddhism, practiced mainly
in Southeast Asia. Guttma Buddha is only the most recent of twenty eight Buddhas described in holy texts. And then there are avatars, humans believed to be incarnations of deities. The Laughing Buddha was one such avatar, a tenth century Chinese monk named Buddai. According to accounts written centuries later, but I was a gregarious, pot bellied monk who wandered from village to village carrying a large sack over his
shoulder Buddhai meaning cloth sack. He was beloved by children and the poor, to whom he would give rice and sweets from his sack. On his deathbed, bud I penned a poem in which he revealed himself as the avatar of Maitrea, a deity also known as the future Buddha. Lightie explains, in our lifetime, this great cosmic era you and I are sharing, there's a teaching Buddha named Suddarta Gotma.
The world will ultimately destroy itself. I don't know when, but when the world is reborn, Matreo will come back as the teaching Buddha of that era. Over time, Buddhai became the subject of popular devotion in Zen Buddhism, both in China and Japan. His large belly and sack are believed to represent abundance, and he's included among these seven Lucky Gods of Japan as a harbinger of abundance and
good health. At some point, he also became the patron deity of restaurants and bartenders, hence his prized location next to the cash register. Lightie isn't sure of the exact historical providence of today's laughing Buddha statues, but she believes the Boddhai imagery in Chinese art and sculpture started popping
up in the fifteenth century. She said. As global trade begins to expand in the late sixteenth and seventeenth century and porcelain is totally transforming global ceramics, there's probably some imagery of this guy that snuck in it got picked up in the West, turned into the laughing Buddha and made into this kitchy thing that you can buy anywhere.
Although rubbing Buddhai's belly for good luck is not Buddhist teaching and generally considered impolite, devotees of Buddhism don't seem to have a problem with the spread of the icon. Barbara O'Brien, a journalist and zen Buddhism student, wrote, it is indicative of Buddhism's broad tolerance of diversity that this laughing Buddha of folklore is accepted into the official practice
for Buddhists. In equality that represents Buddha nature is to be encouraged, and the folklore of the kind laughing Buddha is not regarded as any kind of sacrilege, even though people may unwittingly confuse him with gultma Buddha. Today's episode is based on the article that fat Jolly Fella Isn't Buddha on house Stuffworks dot com, written by Dave Bruce. Brain stuff In's production of by Heart Radio in partnership with house stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by
Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from My heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,