Budai (Buddha)
Budai ( Chinese 布袋 , Pinyin Bùdài , W.-G. Pu-tai - "cloth sack", Japanese Hotei , Vietnamese Bố Đại ) is a popular figure of the Chinese and Japanese folk religion, in Japan he is one of the Seven Gods of Happiness ( Shichi Fukujin ). Its name refers to its trademark. He is usually depicted as a pot-bellied, laughing monk and as "Lucky Buddha" ( Happiness Buddha ) or "Laughing Buddha" ( Laughing Buddha called).
overview
Budai / Hotei is of Chinese origin and goes back to the semi-legendary figure of the monk Qici ( Chinese 契 此 , Pinyin Qìcǐ , W.-G. Ch'i-tz'u , jap. ) From the city of Fenghua ( Zhejiang province ) . Keishi ), who lived as a wandering mendicant monk in the 10th century and is said to have been sighted occasionally even after his death. It is especially in Chan - Buddhism , the Chinese predecessor of Japanese Zen , revered and is considered an incarnation of the "Buddha of the Future" ( Maitreya ). In China, this Buddha figure, which comes from Indian Buddhism, is closely associated with the figure of Budai today. (It is no coincidence that the almost homophonic expression 布 道 (budao) means 'preaching the way of truth', but today the almost homophonic布 菜 (bucai) 'serving out food' is more in the foreground .)
In Japan, Hotei became popular in the course of Zen Buddhism, but the association with the Buddha of the future is not quite as close as in China. The well-known Zen painter Hakuin found one of his favorite motifs in Hotei. During the Edo period , Hotei lost its purely Buddhist identity and was worshiped as a kind of indigenous deity ( kami ) in Shinto shrines - at least in association with the other gods of luck . The figure of the fun-loving Hotei can still be found in Zen temples.
As a cheerful, dispossessed monk, Budai / Hotei originally stood for the virtue of self-sufficiency. His bulging sack, in which he stows his alms, seemed to indicate that he who is satisfied with little has the greatest treasure. He is also considered a Buddha (aspect), who is turned towards the common people and passes on the alms collected in his sack to children and the poor. So it is also partly taken as a symbol for the socially committed Buddhism.
In the context of the Chinese and Japanese folk religion, however, Budai has distanced himself from this Buddhist-monk ideal. B. in many restaurants for hearty culinary delights.
It is said to bring good luck to stroke a Budai figure's stomach. In many depictions he can be seen in the circle of children - a kind of Asian Nicholas or Santa Claus.
Statues of the laughing Buddha
The statue of the laughing Buddha is located in Chinese monasteries in the Hall of the Four Kings of Heaven . There he is shown, mostly surrounded by a crowd of children, with a fat bare belly, a furrowed forehead and a broad smile in a sitting posture (right leg raised). This figure embodies some Chinese ideals. The fat paunch is a symbol of wealth. Laughing and the relaxed sitting posture symbolizes serenity and satisfaction with yourself and the world. The children surrounding the statue indicate one of the main Chinese virtues: love for children.
literature
- Damien Keown: Buddhism . Sterling Publishing Company, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4027-6883-5 , p. 89. ( Excerpt in Google book search)
- Denise Patry Leidy: The Art of Buddhism: An Introduction to Its History and Meaning . Shambhala Publications, 2009, ISBN 978-1-59030-670-3 , p. 82.
Web links
- Hotei 布袋 (JAANUS, eng.)
- Butai / Hotei in China and Japan (religion in Japan)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, Kurt Friedrich: Lexicon of Eastern Wisdom Teachings: Buddhism - Hinduism - Taoism - Zen. Scherz Verlag, Bern / Munich / Vienna 1994, p. 209.