Budai with children, China, Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644

Budai with children
China
Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644
Hollow casting, red patina, remains of gilding
Height 30 cm, width 26 cm, depth 17 cm

Formerly gilt bronze figure of seated Budai. To his right is a girl, to his left a boy and a tiger, at the back next to the tiger a cloth bag is indicated in small. In his right hand he holds a Buddhist rosary, which identifies him as a monk. The base is decorated with engraved and punched vine decor.
Usually referred to in the West as the "Laughing Buddha," the historical Budai actually traces its origins to the eccentric wandering mendicant monk Qici (契此), who is said to have lived during the Later Liang Dynasty (907-923) and is traditionally revered primarily in Chan/ Zen Buddhism as the embodiment of Bodhisattva Maitreya, the future Buddha, but has since found his way into Chinese and Japanese folk religion on a much broader basis.
The name Budai (布袋) means cloth bag, because in his cloth bag he is said to have carried his alms and distributed them to children and the poor. Budai's connection to children is interpreted apotropaically here by the addition of a tiger, which embodies courage and bravery and can ward off demons.