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Laughing Buddha
Hotei or Bu-Dai is better known as the obese
Laughing Buddha. He has become
incorporated into Buddhist & Shinto culture
and is based on an eccentric Chinese Chan
(Zen) monk. His image graces many temples,
restaurants, and amulets. Hotei has become
a deity of contentment and abundance, Taoist
in origin and persists in Japanese folklore as
one of the seven happy gods, or shichi fukujin.
The Laughing Buddha derives from the time
of the Liang Dynasty in China. Hotei is
theorized to have begun as a real Buddhist
monk in China over 1,000 years ago.
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