What Did the Buddha Really Look Like?

In the western world, whenever someone hears the word “Buddha,” they virtually always immediately think of East Asian statues depicting a smiling obese man with a bald head and elongated earlobes dressed in a robe that displays his enormous belly. You can find these statues all over East Asia and miniature versions of them are often sold as souvenirs in gift shops. Because these statues are referred to as “Laughing Buddhas,” most westerners naturally assume that they depict Siddhārtha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism.

Contrary to popular belief, however, these statues do not, in fact, depict the Gautama Buddha, but rather a completely different figure from Chinese folklore. In this article, I want to talk about the real iconography of Siddhārtha Gautama. I also want to talk about the evidence in the surviving written sources for what the historical Buddha really looked like.

The misconception of the “Fat Buddha”

First of all, let’s get one thing straight: the term buddha is not a name, but rather a title. It is an Anglicized form of the Sanskrit word बुद्ध (buddhá), meaning “enlightened one.” Buddhists believe that there have been many buddhas throughout history and that there will be more buddhas in the future.

The historic individual who is usually referred to as “the Buddha” was actually named Siddhārtha Gautama. Much like Jesus or Pythagoras, he is a rather shadowy figure about whom little is known for certain. He was almost certainly a real person, but his life is shrouded in a great deal of legend. Most modern scholars believe he was most likely born sometime around 480 BC or thereabouts in Śākya Gaṇarājya, an oligarchic state in the northern Indian subcontinent and he most likely died sometime around 400 BC or thereabouts.

The statues of the so-called “Laughing Buddha” that most westerners think of when they hear the word “Buddha” are not statues of Siddhārtha Gautama, but rather statues of the legendary Chinese monk Bùdài, who is traditionally said to have lived in the Wuyue Kingdom in around the tenth century AD—roughly 1,300 years after the death of Siddhārtha Gautama.

Bùdài is not as well attested in the historical records as the Gautama Buddha and it is unclear whether he was even a real person. The main source of information about his legendary life is The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, a collection of largely fictional accounts of the lives of legendary Buddhist religious figures that was written sometime between 1004 and 1007 AD.

In Chinese folklore, Bùdài is said to have travelled from town to town, carrying a cloth sack with him wherever he went. It is from this cloth sack that he received his name in Chinese (布袋), which literally means “Cloth Sack.” In his travels, Bùdài is said to have performed many great acts of kindness and generosity. (In some ways, I suppose you could say he is a bit like an East Asian version of Saint Nicholas, whom I wrote about in this article from December 2019.)

The widespread conflation between Siddhārtha Gautama and Bùdài arises from the fact that Bùdài is venerated in Chan Buddhism as a manifestation of the Maitreya Buddha. Westerners usually assume that there is only one Buddha in Buddhism, just like there is only one Christ in Christianity. This is false, however; the Maitreya Buddha is, in fact, an entirely different Buddha from the Gautama Buddha.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a glazed ceramic statue of the Chinese folk hero Bùdài, dating to 1486. Westerners often conflate Bùdài with Siddhārtha Gautama, but they are, in fact, entirely different figures.

The traditional iconography of Siddhārtha Gautama

Early Buddhists generally do not seem to have been interested in making anthropomorphic representations of the Gautama Buddha. As I noted above, Siddhārtha Gautama most likely died sometime around 400 BC, but the earliest surviving anthropomorphic depictions of him are thought to date from the first century AD.

Early Buddhists did, however, represent the Gautama Buddha in a number of non-anthropomorphic ways. In works of early Buddhist art, the Buddha is usually represented by some kind of symbol, such as an empty throne, a Bodhi tree, a dharma wheel, a footprint, or a horse without a rider.

One early non-anthropomorphic representation of the Gautama Buddha can be seen in a relief carving from a railing from the Bharhut Stupa dated to the early second century BC depicting a royal couple paying homage to the Gautama Buddha. In this carving, the Buddha is represented by a dharma wheel.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a relief carving from a railing of the Bharhut Stupa depicting a royal couple visiting the Gautama Buddha, who is represented non-anthropomorphically in the form of a dharma wheel

One of the earliest surviving anthropomorphic depictions of Siddhārtha Gautama that can be securely dated is the depiction of him on the Bimaran Casket, a small gold Buddhist reliquary that was discovered at the site of Bimaran in Afghanistan. The reliquary has been more-or-less securely dated to the middle of the first century AD based on ancient coins that were found inside it and on iconographic evidence.

The Bimaran Casket shows Gautama as a middle-aged man with a mustache. His hair is tied up in a topknot and there is a halo behind his head. He is shown in a contrapposto position with his left leg twisted to the side. He is wearing a light robe. His left hand is resting on his hip, while his right hand is making the abhayamudrā, a gesture of reassurance.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the Bimaran Casket, the earliest surviving depiction of Siddhārtha Gautama that can be securely dated

One of the most famous surviving early depictions of Siddhārtha Gautama is a Greco-Buddhist statue of him in a standing position dating to the first or second century AD. This statue was discovered at the site of Gandhāra in Pakistan and is now on display in the Tokyo National Museum in Japan.

In this statue, the Buddha’s earlobes are visibly elongated from the jewelry he wore when he was the son of an oligarch. His hair is tied in an upknot. There is a large halo behind his head and he has a bindi between his eyebrows. Like the Buddha on the Bimaran Casket, he is wearing a robe, but, unlike the Buddha on the Bimaran Casket, he is clean-shaven, without any trace of a beard or mustache. His right hand is broken off, but his left hand remains intact. His feet are conspicuously bare.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Greco-Buddhist statue of Siddhārtha Gautama from Gandhāra, Pakistan, most likely dating to the first or second century AD

There is a large number of other statues of Siddhārtha Gautama from Gandhāra. One statue dated to the second or third century AD shows him seated in a full lotus meditation position. As with the earlier standing sculpture, his earlobes are elongated and he is shown wearing a robe, with his hair tied up in a topknot and a bindi on his forehead between his eyebrows.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Greco-Buddhist statue from the region of Gandhāra dating to the second or third century AD depicting Siddhārtha Gautama sitting in the full lotus meditation position

A Greco-Buddhist relief carving from Gandhāra dated to the second or third century AD depicts the death of Siddhārtha Gautama. The relief depicts the Buddha lying on a couch on his right side with a pillow propping up his head. He is wearing a robe. His hair is tied back in a topknot and he has a halo behind his head. He is surrounded by his followers, who are presented in varying states of distress. Some of them have their hands raised in despair.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Greco-Buddhist relief carving of the death of Siddhārtha Gautama from Gandhāra, dating to the second or third century AD

There is one other type of sculpture of Siddhārtha Gautama that can be found among the sculptures from Gandhāra; a famous statue from Gandhāra dated to the third or fourth century AD currently on display in Pakistan’s Lahore Museum depicts Siddhārtha Gautama as an emaciated ascetic. His eyes are sunken deep into their sockets. His face is gaunt and he has a straggly, unkempt beard.

His neck and torso are so emaciated that is bare bones and veins are fully exposed. His stomach is sunken deep beneath his ribs. It is a disturbing image, yet also a deeply compelling one. It is an image that evokes the shocking extremity of Gautama’s asceticism. Just looking at him is enough to make one feel the starvation.

Nevertheless, despite his skeletal appearance, his posture is one of perfect discipline; his arms are raised above his lap and they betray not even the slightest hint of weakness. He looks as though he is somehow not in pain from his hunger. He has truly detached himself from the world.

ABOVE: Photograph from Flickr of the statue of Siddhārtha Gautama as an emaciated ascetic from the Lahore Museum in Pakistan

Although Siddhārtha Gautama’s iconography has changed to some extent since the time when the sculptures from Gandhāra were produced, the basic elements have remained the same. To this day, there are still four main types of statues of the Gautama Buddha:

• Standing Buddha statues, showing him as a teacher and a figure of authority
• Seated Buddha statues, showing him meditating
• Reclining Buddha statues, showing him about to die
• Emaciated Buddha statues, showing him as a starving ascetic

Of all these types, the emaciated Buddha type is the rarest, probably because Buddhists generally don’t see extreme asceticism as a path that is worth following.

What the historical Buddha looked like

Determining what an ancient historical figure really looked like historically is something that is usually extremely difficult or even impossible to do, since the evidence is usually extremely limited. For instance, as I discuss in this article from March 2020, the earliest surviving Christian texts say very little about Jesus’s physical appearance.

Basically, all they tell us is some very basic information about the sorts of clothes he wore. At times, the gospels seem to indicate that there was nothing remarkable about his appearance (such as when they describe Jesus as disappearing into a crowd), but this is the closest we ever get to a physical description.

Meanwhile, the earliest surviving Christian depictions of Jesus come from the third century AD—around two hundred years after Jesus’s death—and they vary drastically from each other. The image of Jesus as a handsome man with long, flowing hair and a beard that we all have in our heads today is certainly not reflective of what the historical Jesus looked like; this image of Jesus actually developed in the late fourth century AD based on ancient Greek depictions of male deities such as Zeus, Serapis, and Asklepios.

ABOVE: Fourth-century AD Christian painting from the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter depicting the story from the Synoptic Gospels about the bleeding woman who took hold of Jesus’s himation and was healed

Unfortunately, many of the things I have written about Jesus’s appearance are also true about Siddhārtha Gautama. The statues we have been discussing here are reflective of how the Gautama Buddha was imagined by people who lived many centuries after his death, not how he really looked when he was alive.

The traditional iconography of Siddhārtha Gautama has been influenced to a large extent by older Greek iconography in the much same way that the traditional iconography of Jesus has been. All the earliest surviving anthropomorphic depictions of Siddhārtha Gautama are done in a very Hellenistic style and the iconography itself shows clear Hellenistic influence. One relief carving from Gandhāra dated to the second century AD even depicts Siddhārtha Gautama’s protector Vajrapāṇi as the Greek hero Herakles!

Furthermore, even the earliest surviving artistic representations of Siddhārtha Gautama contradict how he is described in our oldest surviving texts, some of which may date to not long after his own lifetime. Admittedly, the earliest surviving Buddhist texts don’t give a whole lot of information about what the Gautama Buddha looked like, but one thing they all seem to agree on is that he shaved his head when he first set out on his quest wisdom and that he remained bald.

For instance, in the Ambaṭṭha Sutta, the third sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya, the young Brahmin Ambaṭṭha disparages Siddhārtha Gautama and his followers, calling them “shavelings, sham friars, menial black fellows, the offscouring of our kinsman’s heels.” This means the ancient sculptures of the Gautama Buddha are not accurate, since they all show him with a full head of hair.

ABOVE: Photograph from a Wikimedia Commons of a second-century AD relief carving from Gandhāra showing the Gautama Buddha being protected by Vajrapāṇi, who is shown here as the Greek hero Herakles

The Thirty-Two Characteristics of a Great Man

Ancient Buddhist texts describe thirty-two physical characteristics that all great men supposedly possess. Since the Gautama Buddha was a great man, he is traditionally said to have had all these characteristics. Here is the list:

1. Feet with even soles
2. The mark of a wheel with a thousand spokes on the bottoms of his feet
3. Long, thin fingers
4. Soft hands and feet
5. Netlike lines on the palms of his hands and soles of his feet
6. Projecting heels
7. High ankles
8. Strong thighs like those of a royal stag
9. Hands that reach below the knees
10. Well-concealed genitals
11. An armspan equal to his height
12. Hair that is always dark at the roots
13. Beautiful and curly body hair
14. A naturally golden complexion
15. A godlike aura
16. Skin that is both soft and smooth
17. Well-rounded hands, feet, shoulders, and neck
18. An undinted back
19. A chest like that of a lion
20. An upright posture
21. Full and well-rounded shoulders
22. Forty teeth
23. Teeth that are white, even, and without gaps
24. Four canine teeth that are perfectly white
25. A jaw like that of a lion
26. Extraordinary tasting abilities
27. An extraordinarily long, thick tongue
28. A deep, godlike voice
29. Deep blue eyes
30. Eyelashes like those of a royal bull
31. A white ūrṇā wisp of hair between his eyebrows
32. An uṣṇīṣa, or slight protuberance on the top of his head

There are several serious problems, though, with taking these as literal, observable physical features that the historical Siddhārtha Gautama bore while he was alive on Earth.

The first problem is that early Buddhist texts demonstrate that these traits were not seen as obvious ones that someone could spot just by looking at him; they instead seem to have been seen as subtle, hidden aspects of the Buddha’s appearance that could only be spotted upon close examination.

There are multiple texts in which people are described as seeing the Gautama Buddha and not recognizing him as such. For instance, in the Sàmañña-Phàla Sutta, the second sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya, King Ajātasattu of Magadha goes to visit the Gautama Buddha, but he can’t tell him apart from the other monks and he is compelled to ask the physician Jīvaka which of the monks is the Buddha. The text reads as follows, as translated by T. W. Rhys Davids:

“Then the king went on, on his elephant as far as the path was passable for elephants, and then on foot, to the door of the pavilion; and then said to Jīvaka: ‘But where, Jīvaka, is the Blessed One?’”

“‘That is he, O king, sitting against the middle pillar, and facing the East, with the brethren around him.”

Similarly, in the Majjhima Nikāya 140, a beggar who thinks of himself as one of the Gautama Buddha’s followers meets him in person, but he does not recognize him as the Buddha. Clearly, these examples show that the Thirty-Two Characteristics of a Great Man were not seen as being noticeable to an ordinary outward observer because, if they were conspicuous, they would be easy to recognize.

The second problem is that these Thirty-Two Characteristics of a Great Man are obviously rooted in an idealizing tradition and they cannot be reflective of what an actual, specific individual looked like in historical reality anyway.

Ultimately, I’m not sure we can know much about the Gautama Buddha’s appearance other than that he was a man from the northern part of Indian subcontinent with a shaved head.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a first-century AD carving of the Gautama Buddha’s footprint from Gandhāra, showing the dharma wheel on the bottom of his foot