Large Buddha Figures

Dave mentioned this one. The Happy Buddha should not be thought of as Hotei-Oshi, the Japanese version of the Buddhist monk that is one of the seven lucky gods. Of the seven, Hotei was actually a real person whereas the others are legends or mythical. Hotei is usually depicted as a Fat man with very fat belly protruding from his robes, rather like the Buddha, at times Hotei is drawn as a man wandering among the forrest trees with unkemped long hair and a scruffy beard carrying a sack of gifts. He went against the normal rules for Monks by begging for fish and meat, forbidden foods for Buddhist monks.