What is it about?
In various places in Buddhist scriptures, the Buddhist monk is discouraged to laugh or even smile too broadly. Later Buddhist scholastics took their cue from these pronouncements. Yet this negative attitude towards humour and laughter had largely disappeared and particularly in the Chinese Ch'an tradition we see humour being used extensively, even as a teaching device. This article traces the development of humour in the Buddhist tradition.
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This page is a summary of: Real Buddhas Don't Laugh: Attitudes towards Humour and Laughter in Ancient India and China, Social Identities, March 2001, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/13504630120043549.
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