''Trump, the Buddha of Knowing of the Western Paradise'' ( zh, 西天懂佛, ), commonly known as ''Trump Buddha'' or ''Buddha Trump'', is a

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

-inspired statue of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

by Chinese furniture maker and artist Hong Jinshi. The statue depicts Donald Trump in a Buddhist robe sitting in a cross-legged position with his hands folded on his lap, and his thumbs pointed outward. In Buddhist art, this pose represents meditation and contemplation. Hong Jinshi began selling copies of the statue on the website

Taobao Taobao () is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it is the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba Cl ...

in 2021, with 16 centimeter-tall versions selling for 999 yuan (150 USD), and larger, 46 centimeter-tall versions selling for 3,999 yuan (610 USD). The slogan "Make Your Company Great Again" (a parody of Trump's slogan "

Make America Great Again "Make America Great Again" or MAGA is an American political slogan popularized by Donald Trump in his successful 2016 presidential campaign. The slogan became a pop culture phenomenon, seeing widespread use and spawning numerous variants in ...

") was used to promote the statue. The statue's listing describes it as "Trump, who knows Buddhism better than anyone". Due to the popularity of the statue, many

counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

statues were sold on Taobao by other sellers for lower prices. Hong has stated that he hopes to eventually give a copy of the statue to Donald Trump as a gift. Hong was inspired by the juxtaposition between Buddhist ideals and Trump's personality, particularly the Buddha's calm and collected demeanor compared to Trump's perceived loud and stressed personality despite his personal success in life. He was also inspired by one of Trump's nicknames on Chinese social media, "King of Knowing Everything". Hong also said that he has no political opinion on Trump, as he is a former American president who lives very far away from China.

References

{{reflist 2021 sculptures Buddhist sculpture Parodies of Donald Trump Statues of Donald Trump Works by Chinese people