http://www.straightdope.com/columns/070706.html
Funny, upon being introduced recently to a Cambodian Chinese, he immediately noticed my long earlobes (that was news to me) and told me I’ll enjoy a long life.
A comment on Hotei, the fat buddha. He’s definitely Chinese; you rarely see him in Southeast Asia, and when you do, it’s someplace that’s Chinese. Like Chinatown. Some people of Chinese descent may have a small statue of him someplace in their house or even office.
Oddly, though, my Thai wife, who is herself ethnic Chinese, has told me he’s considered offensive by most Thais. Presumably that would be the non-ethnic-Chinese Thais. But I can’t say I’ve ever encountered an opinion on him one way or another in all my time here. He’s simply a nonentity to most here.
Edit: Oh, and yes, I think I’ve heard that long-earlobe belief the OP mentioned.
As I recall, “earlobes that are long like lotus petals” is the fifty-ninth of the eighty secondary physical characteristics of a buddha as summarized in the Pali canon.
Also, to be nit-picky, Hotei and Miroku aren’t different names for the same person; Miroku is the Japanese name for Maitreya Bodhisattva, while Hotei was a monk (probably Chinese or Japanese, if he was based on an actual dude) who some practitioners consider to have been a manifestation of Maitreya.
Why do the non-tubby Buddhas have what appears to be curly hair? Isn’t curly hair unusual for Asians? Or is it some kind of zen showercap?
The Perfect Master dealt with that in his column, referred to in the OP:
New guy here - sticking his nose in where it probably doesn’t belong. The stylized full body halo mentioned in the column is actually a representation of the Bodhi tree under which Siddhartha achieved enlightenment.
One other thing about the “fat” Buddha…
If we look at art through history, large framed (fat) people are often depicted… The Venus Goddess (not the armless one, the ice age one) is rotund and large. I need not mention Rubin’s paintings of ladies who were post volupturous, and you can find other examples. (Besides the “fat” Buddha
Why?
We live in a time of conspicous consumption and stylistic thinness… Things were not always such…
China (where the fat Buddha image flourishes) has seen many famines in its history. A person who is fat, happy, sitting comfortably, and laughing represents a symbolic ideal. Obviously this person need not be concerned with worldly things such as eating, working or suffering, and must be, by inference, enlightened.
The fat and volupturous images found in art usually come from times when fat meant healthy and rich (and free of worry/worldly concerns)…
just a thought
FML
There was actually a thread on that topic. You can see it here.
Early Buddhist art was heavily influenced by Greek art, through Alexander the Great. See the Wikipedia entry on Greco-Buddhist art
That explains the curly hear, the top-knot (Greek symbol for wisdom), and more (except the ear lobes).