Posted By: Anita Mui
Posted Date: Feb 02, 2008 (12:45 PM)
Dear Claude
The stone statue is Pra Sangkachai (in Thai) or Hotai (Chinese, Japanese Laughing Buddha).
The style of stone carving is possibly folk art from North East of Thailand which is closed to Loa's and Cambodia. The lips are thick, indicates Cambodian influance.
The materail is possibly sand stone painted with Chart, a kind of red paint made from bugjuice ( a kind of insects that ants feed them, and ants will drinks juice from their butt). The bugjuice will be crushed and mixed with glue.
"If the red paint is prove not to be modern day chemical oil paint as well as acrylic paint, the statue would be dated more than 50 years"
The holes are for spurs to lock metal plates, for example copper, silver, gold, brass..etc which cover all over the statue. The artesan will use rubber hammer and wood chisel to hammer the metal plates to be attached and form the shape of Laughing Buddha.
I first thought they are bullet holes, but they are not.
See picture of the bugjuice.
Have fun
Anita Mui
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