Hey Gunnar

The Buddha who is often portrayed as fat is usually Hotei and not
the historical Siddhartha Gotama. He is said to be a wandering monk
who carried a bag of sweet stuff for children. Sometimes he is also
called the Laghing Buddha. How he originated I am not sure but I
think he is connected with zen. Sounds a bit like Santa Claus.

pirayaani

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Gunnar Gällmo <gunnargallmo@...>
wrote:

> --- Yuttadhammo <buffer@...> cited:
>
> > > the THINNEST religious people are Buddhists!
>
> 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_).
>
> (This saying got lost in the media reports, because he
> was attacking Islam in the same sermon, and promptly
> got a Fatwa...)
>
> 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?
>
> Gunnar
>
> gunnargallmo@...