Budai (Laughing Maitreya)

The Laughing Maitreya with the Vast Belly is modelled upon Qici, a monk from Fenghua during the Later Liang dynasty of the Five Dynasties period. Rotund and jovial, Qici habitually carried a cloth sack while begging alms, and was famed for his uncanny ability to foretell auspicious and inauspicious events. Before his passing, he left a verse: 'Maitreya is truly Maitreya; his manifestations number thousands upon billions; constantly revealing himself to people of this age—yet people of this age fail to recognize him.' Thereafter, he came to be widely revered as an earthly incarnation of Maitreya. From the Song dynasty onward, his smiling, open-mouthed image has been enshrined on the central ridge beam of the Hall of Heavenly Kings in Buddhist temples across China, flanked by the enduring couplet: 'His vast belly tolerates all that the world finds intolerable; his open mouth laughs at all that the world finds laughable.' Because of his endearing simplicity and cheerful welcome to all, merchants venerate him as an auspicious deity who attracts wealth and blessings, and households joyfully enshrine his image.