Artist Ken Hunt had just finished creating marble busts of local educator Mary Eyre and Oregon Gov. Mark Hatfield when Kam Sang Kwan contacted him.
Kwan loved how the sculptor brought his subjects to life.
He and his wife, Bo, wanted him to do the same with a giant wooden statue of a Pu-Tai, better known as the laughing or happy Buddha.
Hunt had no experience with Chinese folk art, but he accepted the commission anyway.
Mr. Kwan wanted the oversized artwork for the 1990 expansion of his restaurant, Kwan's Original Cuisine, 835 Commercial St. SE.
"He had a vision of a big welcoming entryway for his restaurant," Hunt said. "He wanted it to be on the edge of magical."
Big was the operative word.
"He wanted it to be as big as would fit," Hunt said. "It was a crazy request."
The result was a 14-foot, 6-inch-tall, 3,000-pound statue with a bulging belly that countless children and adults have since rubbed for good luck.
Now that the restaurant has closed, what becomes of the beloved Buddha?
I imagine him decorating the first floor of Salem Public Library or the entryway of an elementary school. Perhaps he belongs in a museum or city hall.
Buddha is the second-most famous statue in Salem, although arguably more personable than the Oregon Pioneer. He's certainly more accessible.
You can touch the Buddha. In fact, it's encouraged. Legend has it if you rub the laughing Buddha's belly, it will bring good luck and prosperity.
Bo Kwan should have bought stock in orange oil with all she's needed to clean and polish the wooden statue, always paying extra attention paid to the midsection.
The Buddha was one of her late husband's many great ideas at the restaurant, which closed for good Sept. 2, less than 3 months after he died at the age of 82.
He added an art gallery in 1988, featuring hand-decorated, imported Chinese porcelain and Buddha statues in different sizes. The giant Buddha became a fixture soon after.
Hunt spent more than a year working on the statue in his garage in Pendleton, where he lived at the time. His garage had 7-foot ceilings, forcing him to carve the sculpture section by section.
He cut 4,500 blocks of Northwest redwood and mitered, glued, and nailed them into place in 11 horizontal sections. The nails were removed before carving.
Each section weighed less than 300 pounds, which at the time he could handle.
Hunt chose Northwest redwood because it was relatively cheap, light and soft. He purchased 3- to 6-foot-long pieces at Keith Brown Bargain Shed, remnants from the making of California wine barrels.
He used cedar when he needed to build volume such as in the stomach. Once carved, the wood was stained and varnished.
The Kwans provided him with a model, a 5- to 6-foot-tall similar Buddha carved in China. Hunt's memories of a Buddha his grandmother owned also influenced his work.
He and a friend loaded the sections into a rented truck and drove them to Salem for installation Dec. 2, 1990. Hunt had never seen the Buddha complete until putting it together in the lobby of the restaurant.
"What took a couple of hours for me was filling the seams between layers with spackling paste and staining and varnishing them so they blended well," Hunt said. "Once finished, Kwan fed us to our heart's content."
This Buddha is not a rendering of a religious Buddha. He's a folk hero and a symbol of happiness and good fortune. It is said that he gave up his possessions and suddenly became so wealthy that he shared his fortune with everyone, traveling with a knapsack on a tree branch in his right hand and a gourd in his left.
A necklace carved with the Chinese character for prosperity rests over his bulging belly. He stands on a modest base carved and stained like green grass with gold coins scattered at his feet.
A 1993 Kwan's advertisement in the Statesman Journal proclaimed it had the largest handcrafted happy Buddha in the Northwest.
Bo Kwan's favorite feature is the more than 2-foot-wide smile.
"He really carved the smile perfectly," she said, backing up to get a better angle in the gift shop, which remains open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week.
Bo stands about 5-feet-1. It would take almost three of her to measure up to the Buddha, whose features are humongous.
His big toe is more than a foot wide. His thumbnail is 3½ inches wide. The 40 beads on his necklace are bigger than baseballs.
The scale reminds you just how much space is needed to accommodate Buddha. No one in the Kwan family, not his widow nor his four children, have room in their homes.
They've said they plan to sell the statue or perhaps donate it to an Asian Museum. They've had discussions with an interested local buyer who is exploring ways to fit it in her home.
No one knows the value of the Buddha. Bo doesn't remember how much they paid.
"It's worth whatever is the value of its wonder," said Hunt, who recalls making $10,000 on the commission.
The trick will be extricating Buddha from the restaurant. Even prone he couldn't fit through the double doors of the building.
He'll have to be taken apart and reassembled. Hunt, who lives in Hells Canyon and is now 61, has agreed to help the family when the time comes to remove Buddha from the premises. The restaurant is for sale, and so is the building as part of a portfolio of commercial properties.
"Ideally, it should stay indoors or at least undercover," Hunt said. "Wood expands and contracts with moisture and if these changes are dramatic, the joints would begin to disassemble."
The Buddha is among a handful of public works Hunt has been honored to create.
The marble bust of Gov. Hatfield, completed in 1986, is on display in a corner of the Governor's ceremonial office at the Oregon State Capitol.
The bust of Mary Eyre, dedicated in 1984, has a special place in the library at Eyre Elementary, the Southeast Salem school named in her honor. One feature of her face is noticeably darker than the rest of the white marble piece.
Students love to touch her nose, reminiscent of rubbing a Buddha's belly for good luck.
“Forward This” taps into the heart of the Mid-Valley — its people, history, and issues. Contact Capi Lynn at clynn@StatesmanJournal.com or 503-399-6710, or follow her the rest of the week on Twitter @CapiLynn and Facebook @CapiLynnSJ.
