# Buddha's Bag **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2003, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddhas-bag/188392 "2003-07-14T15:13:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JerseyDiamond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@JerseyDiamond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyDiamond)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddhas-bag/188392/1 "2003-07-14T15:13:06Z")
Every place I go, I am always seeing little (and really big) buddha statues. Jolly little fat bald man, with a big poop-eating grin on his face, sometimes with children climbing all over him, and always with a big sack over his shoulder. What’s in the sack? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddhas-bag/188392/2 "2003-07-14T15:40:39Z")
1. Candy, rice plants, food, etc. 2. It ain’t really Buddha. I mean, it is, sorta, but not Siddartha Gautama. The “Laughing Buddha” is a wandering Zen (Chan) monk from the T’ang Dynasty, Hotei (or Hotai, or Pu-Tai), whick means “cloth sack”, or something close. Hotei was/is friendly character who wanders around taking sadness and giving presents and spreading cheer, sort of like a Buddhist Santa. Here’s a [link](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing_Buddha). ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddhas-bag/188392/3 "2003-07-14T16:27:26Z")
Giving thanks that this thread was not about a religious relic. ---
**Author:** ![JerseyDiamond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@JerseyDiamond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyDiamond)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddhas-bag/188392/4 "2003-07-14T23:08:30Z")
**Pravnik** , thank you for your response 🙂 **Degrance** , I am not sure what you mean. Isn’t Budda a religious relic? JD ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddhas-bag/188392/5 "2003-07-14T23:12:35Z")
I think it might be a play on the word ‘bag’, JD. ---
**Author:** ![Agback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/977dab/32.png) [@Agback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agback)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddhas-bag/188392/6 "2003-07-15T00:35:29Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by JerseyDiamond Isn’t Budda a religious relic?_ No. The Buddha’s tooth is a religious relic. A statue of the Buddha is a religious image or icon. The Buddha was a religious reformer and is a religious figure. But the Buddha is not a relic. [DICTIONARY.REFERENCE.COM](http://DICTIONARY.REFERENCE.COM) says: 1. Something that has survived the passage of time, especially an object or custom whose original culture has disappeared: “Corporal punishment was a relic of barbarism” (Cyril Connolly). 2. Something cherished for its age or historic interest. 3. An object kept for its association with the past; a memento. 4. An object of religious veneration, especially a piece of the body or a personal item of a saint. 5. or relics A corpse; remains. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddhas-bag/188392/7 "2003-07-15T00:54:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Degrance \* > \*\*Giving thanks that this thread was not about a religious relic. \*\* Amen to that! I gotta read this thing every day till it fades! 😃 **Jersey Diamond** , to complete the information here, as you’ve read a “relic” is an actual item such as a piece of the True Cross or the Holy Grail or whatever, as distinguished from an icon such as the cross in a church. And as **Mangetout** said, **Degrance** was making a little joke, as am I. Specifically, he was expressing his feigned worry that this thread would be about the actual, preserved testicle of Buddha. ---
**Author:** ![JerseyDiamond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@JerseyDiamond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyDiamond)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddhas-bag/188392/8 "2003-07-15T04:19:17Z")
D’OH! Thanks. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddhas-bag/188392/9 "2003-07-15T04:45:44Z")
Also, it should be worth noting (because I hear a lot of people refer to Buddha as ‘fat’) that the obesity is simbolic of spiritual wealth.