Picture of the Week: Budai (Laughing Buddha)

Laughing Buddha

Budai, pronounced Hotei in Japanese, is a Chinese folkloric deity. His name means “Cloth Sack,”and comes from the bag that he is conventionally depicted as carrying. He is usually identified with (or as an incarnation of) Maitreya Buddha, so much so that the Budai image is one of the main forms in which Maitreya Buddha is depicted in East Asia. He is almost always shown smiling or laughing, hence his nickname in Chinese, the Laughing Buddha.