"The grouping of three deities, with the larger middle one flanked by two smaller ones, is a canon format in Buddhist images and always the center of a composition in a mural, a temple, etc. Usually the grouping shows a seated Buddha flanked by two standing bodhisattvas. Here you have the hierarchic format, but instead with three amusing Buddhas.

The three fat, bare-chest Buddhas are identifiable as the Maitreya, the future Buddha, known also in China as the Budai (cotton-sack) Monk because Maitreya is believed to have disguised himself as a poor begging monk. These figures must have been inspired by the Dehua white porcelain figures of the Budai Monk imported from China, but some features are altered, like the large ears now sticking straight up instead of hanging down to their shoulders with drooping earlobes. The rosary beads the monk often holds and rests on his knee seem to have evolved into some kind of curved scepter.

The seats are quite unusual as well. The typical seats  for "the trinity image" are elevated seats or daises with either upward or downward lotus petals or even both. Maitreya is often seen seated without anything. Here the seats are inspired by the imported rattan/bamboo furniture and the oriental lattice features. Then again, the depiction of the seat cover is to me more Western, perhaps closer to that of a Christian altar cover, than something oriental or Buddhist.

The red textile hanging over the central Buddha is a Western device used for theatrical effect in Western painting. The red bird above the central Buddha is the mythical phoenix. The Chinese Daoists' name for the phoenix was 'cinnabar bird' (tan-niao), for the red mercury sulfide associated with alchemy, the ancient search for a magical compound that would change base metals into gold."

--Jennifer Chen, Independent Researcher/Scholar (email correspondence, January 2007)