Despite the size of the laughing statue at your favorite Chinese restaurant, the first Buddha was known to live on one grain of rice per day. and ancient texts mention his being so thin that his bones were visible. So, how did the ubiquitous portrayal of a chubby, laughing Buddha come to be connected with this real figure? "When Buddhism went to China, the image of the Buddha got mixed with a Chinese God, Budai," explains Jim Wasserman, a retired comparative religion professor and co-owner (with his wife) of Your Third Life. "Because Chinese immigrants were the first to introduce the concept of Buddhism to America, people assumed that this portrayal of a fat Buddha was the only one." The older, T
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