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Why were many renderings of Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, look so fat in some Chinese art?

I am a buddhist and was an art student. There are a few statues and pictures of what is called the laughing Buddha in Chinese art, was that supposed to be the real Siddhartha - the historical Buddha or another Buddha, since we all have the potential to be a Buddha through our own Buddha Nature?

Public Comments

1. The historical Buddha, Siddharta Gautama, is never depicted as a fat man, but as a perfectly proportioned man with the 112 so called "major and minor marks of a buddha": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_characteristics_of_the_Buddha The popular fat so called "laughing Buddha" in China is in fact a Chinese folkloristic deity called Budai, sometimes identified with the "future buddha", Maitreya, although normally all buddhas are depicted with the perfectly proportioned body and the physical marks of a buddha mentioned above.