Your feelings about Budai?

[plwk]

What are your thoughts about Budai?

To keep the belly and miserliness in check...

[Quiet Heart]

In the U.S.A. much of the popular conception of the "Buddha" is (mistakenly) the Hotei/Budhai you are talking about.
Much of this comes from the Chinese workers who first introduced the "Buddha" in the late 1800's in California and Hawaii then.
That "Jolly Chinaman" figure as it became known was the first introduction to Buddhisim...Chinese style...that many people in Hawaii or California had.
So they identified that figure with the "Buddha" figure.

[Jikan]

I like him.

[namoh]

when asked about this matter, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche replied that he was in fact to be considered as a form of Maitreya, and he was suitable to be placed on a shrine. I vaguely recall a story about him being a Chinese monk that took care of a bunch of orphans, and when he died, he spoke a poem implying he was Maitreya. Khenpo Karthar is by all accounts a pretty orthodox and non-bending lama, so I wouldn't take it as him just being polite, but that's just me.