Maitreya Buddha Thangka was the earliest cult bodhisattva, mentioned even in the early Hinayana sutras. A pali Sutta predicts that in the distant future there will arise in the world a Blessed One named Maitreya, who will be attended by company of thousands of monks just as Sakyamuni is attended by a company of hundreds. At present, this bodhisattva is residing in the Tusita heaven(where future Buddhas tradionally spend their penultimate life), awaiting his last birth. The pious might look forward to that event, dedication the merit of their current practice to the goal of being reborn as a human being at that time, when all human beings will gain Awakening.
Maitreya Buddha Thangka will appear as like Shakyamuni Buddha
Maitreya Buddha Thangka unlike the Buddhas before him, is alive, so he can respond to the prayers of worshipers. Being compassionate, as his name indicates he willingly grants help being a high god in his present birth, he has the power to do so. His cult thus offers its devotees the advantages of theism and Buddhism combined.
Maitreya Buddha Thangka is part of Mahayana practice
Maitreya Buddha Thangka just as the Buddhas had received occasional revelations and inspirations from devas, Mahayana masters went into trances and journeyed to the Tusita heaven, where Maitreya revealed Dharma- themes to them. One occasion, he also descended to Earth to divulge texts, which makes it exceedingly difficult to decide whether the Yogacarin texts attributed to Maitreyanatha, “Lord Maitreya,” are the works of a human author who took that name, or are the outcome of a meditator’s visionary experiences.
Maitreya Buddha Thangka will know as Future Buddha
Maitreya Buddha Thangka Beginning from the time that Gandharan art first appeared, Maitreya was frequently represented, perhaps as a result of the messianic expectations originating probably in present- day. Iran that coursed through India and the Mediterranean world after 200 B.C.E. Many images and paintings of him survive in central Asia.
Maitreya Buddha Thangka will be in our time
Maitreya Buddha Thangka will appear as Buddha himself, but the history saying just to finished the Shakyamuni Buddha’s time still have time. there saying 5000 years will be under the Shakyamuni Buddha time, then after finished of his time will be just empty time then there will not be any Dharma activity, and there will not be any Dharma practice. then after that story saying will come Maitreya Buddha as Shakyamuni Buddha of other form. and there saying that time will change everything. like in this time we are seeing nature or human body all there saying will change. as human body also saying will be very small form.
In order to pass the interlude happily and to be sure of rebirth along with Maitreya when he comes, they could meanwhile seek rebirth in the Tusita paradise. One recommended way of securing a desired rebirth is to concentrate one’s thoughts on it at the moment of death. Thus, King Dutthagamani of Sri Lanka, dying in 80 B.C.E. fixed his last thoughts on Maitreya’s heaven where, the chronicles assure us, he was reborn. Similarly, the Chinese pilgrim Hsuan-tsang vowed to be reborn in the Tusita heaven with Maitreya. Life in the presence of Maitreya is the Buddhist wquivalent of the Christian millennium.
He is oftern shown sitting on this throne in western fashion. In China, he also known as “the laughing Buddha,” an apocryphal figure who was deemed a preincarnation of Maitreya. Known in Chinese as Pu-tai Ho-shang, his rotund figure is often mistaken by westerners for Sakyamuni Buddha when they find images of him in curio shops. He appears as the savior in the last picture of the oxtaming series of Chan and Zen Buddhism.