Re: Thin Buddhists and fat Buddha?

At 14:32 30.04.2005 +0200, Gunnar wrote:

>Interesting, especially in comparison to the myth -
>quite common in the West - that the Buddha was fat. A
>Pentecostalist preacher in Sweden (though he is of
>Norwegian origin - sorry, Kåre!) recently called him,
>in a sermon, "a brown burnt tin can, and an overweight
>one" (_en brunbränd plåtburk, och en överviktig
>sådan_).

No need to apologize!

Stupidity knows no nationality ... :-)

>(This saying got lost in the media reports, because he
>was attacking Islam in the same sermon, and promptly
>got a Fatwa...)

His words about Mohammad and the Buddha were in the papers here in Norway.
Buddhists get a good laugh, other people just get angry.

>So: does anyone know wherefrom this idea comes? As far
>as I know, South and South East Asian Buddha images
>tend to be quite slim; Chinese ones are sometimes a
>different matter, but do such images represent the
>historical Buddha, Maitreya, or someone else?

As far as I remember, the fat "Buddha" is really a Chinese mythological
figure Pu Tei or Ho Tei. Definitely not the historical Buddha.

Maybe someone has some further informations about this?

Best regards,

Kåre A. Lie
http://www.lienet.no