icted as a priest wearing a large smile but is scantily clad, with most part of his body, including the chest and belly fully bared. That is why he is better known as the Laughing Buddha but affectionately called the Budai he-shang (布袋和尚) or the Monk in the Calico Sack, because he wears raiment made of a sack that is used to pack rice. The Maitreya Buddha is not very popularly worshipped in China in general or in Taiwan in particular. In Taiwan there are only four Buddhist temples enshrining him as the top Buddha. The Bao-que shi (寶覺寺) or Treasure Cognition temple in Taichung has Taiwan's largest Laughing Buddha image, with his shaven head touching the ceiling of his hall.
There was an official sanction against Maitreya worship during the Qing period (1644-1911) because he was the chief Buddha of the White Lotus Sect or Bai-lian qiao (白蓮教). First organized around 1250, the White Lotus Sect was a quasi-religious secret body. During the Yuan (元朝) period, it dedicated itself to the objective of overturning the Mongol dynasty and restoring the native Song dynasty (宋朝960-1206). Surviving into the Qing period, it vowed to topple the Manchu dynasty and return the native Ming to power. Members adopted Buddhist as well as Taoist ideas to win popular support. White Lotus members rose up against the Manchu in 1796 and the movement spread quickly to Sichuan, Hubei, Shangxi, Kansu and Henan. The rebellion was finally suppressed in 1803. In Taiwan, the Tian-li qiao (天理教) or Heavenly Reason Sect, which was a branch of the White Lotus Sect, was suppressed.
The Buddhist faithful believe Maitreya is the one who follows up the historical Sakyamuni Buddha (釋迦牟尼佛). Maitreya waits in the Tushita heaven for the moment he is to appear on earth as the Buddha of the fifth world cycle. A dhyani-Bodhisattva, he is considered one of the creators of the universe. In the future he will be like Sakyamuni, a mortal manusi Buddha who lives on earth for a while in order to teach mankind the dharma.
According to "The ProphecyConcerning Maitreya," there will exist in the future an Eden-like country named Ketumati. Its king, Shankha, is the ruler of the world. He has an advisor, who is a Brahmin, Subrahmana by name. Subrahmana will have a wife, Brahmanvati. Maitreya will then leave Tushita heaven and go for his last rebirth in the womb of Brahmanvati. She will carry the baby for ten months and then go to a grove full of beautiful flowers where she will give birth to Maitreya, "neither seated nor lying down but standing up, holding on to the branch of a tree." As soon as he is born, he will walk seven steps forward; and a jewel or a lotus will spring up where he will put down his feet. He will raise his eyes to the ten directions, and say: "This is my last birth. There will be no more rebirths after this one. Never will I come back here, but, all pure, I shall attain Nirvana!" He is believed to be born on the first day of the first moon or the fifth day of the fifth moon on the lunar calendar.
