Was Buddha really obese?

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Was Buddha really obese as so many statues of him suggest or was Buddha really more trim - along the lines of Jack LaLanne? Would the First Lady of the White House (2011), Michelle Obama, ask an obese Buddha to lose weight and shape up (part of Michelle Obama's War on Childhood Obesity Crusade/all Americans should look physically appealing like the folks - women and men - in Hollywood, California)? Topic: Values / Core Values / American values / White House values / Weight Reduction Watchers' values / Hollywood values / Current culture.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDthMGtZKa4[/youtube]

You often see images of Buddha like this

not too many wayfaring strangers are obese.

or like this.

pgd, you are confusing a representation of a buddha with a representation of the Buddha. There is a vast difference.

There is no evidence that the Buddha--Siddhartha Gautama--was overweight; actually, much to the contrary, most texts and visual depictions represent him as the slim Indian man shown in LKL's picture above. The "Fat Buddha", or "Laughing Buddha", is not a depiction of Gautama, but rather is likely based on a Chinese monk named Budai who lived four centuries after Gautama. The Laughing Buddha is exclusively a symbol of Chinese Buddhism, and represents good fortune and prosperity--and in the Chinese culture of the time, being overweight was indeed a status symbol.

All this, I located from a fast Google search. Next time, maybe, before you make assertions about a religion other than your own, you should do some of the research yourself to see if they hold any water at all.

At first the Buddha was an ascetic, practising extremes of self denial, hence the representation in Panda's image.

Then he came to realise that that was dumb, and came up with a more moderate 'middle way'.

Where the obese Buddha concept comes from, I've no idea.

Not enough exercise.

ruveyn

Yes, I suppose if one isn't prepared to tap a few words into google, then one isn't really being very serious about knowing.

I'll go ahead and quote the WP article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budai )

So..

The original Buddha (from India) is actually thin. The obese Buddha comes from the Chinese adopting the religion and making it more acceptable to their culture by making the symbol (the buddha figure) represent 'good' ... which in chinese culture/folklore is always represented by obesity. The Japanese borrowed this from the Chinese.

If you notice, in other nations in SE asia which had direct contact with India retain their slim version of Buddha on their temples and religious icons... its the mass-produced consumer market obese Buddha figures that are sold all over the place.

Chevand - thanks.

Fudo was pretty well put together course, it's kinda hard to put on weight when wreathed in flames..

My college instructor back in Philosophy of Religion always made Gautama out to be lean, tall, and handsome. It should be remembered, he had been raised as a member of warrior nobility, and so it's doubtful he'd accumulate much body fat.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer