What makes the buddah look wise?

Answer 1

The fact that buddha is fat. Which is funny cause buddha originally was so thin you could see the bones pressing against skin, no muscle or fat covering. This was from fasting Answer: Nobody "looks wise".

A person can look angry, happy, tense, worried and so on by the positioning of their eyes, lips, eyebrow and so on - these are expressions. We'e all trained to identify these looks.

In the case of the Buddha, you are looking at a statue which is an artistic representation of haw a person might have looked - but nobody knows. Artists are trianed to create representations that look like people including the expressions thy might have worn - statues of generals look fierce, statues of Roman emperors look self assured, statues of saints often look pained (depending on whether they are in the process of dying). As far as the Buddha's statues he could best be described as looking serene (untroubled). Some Buddha statues like Hotei, the fat Buddha in Chinese restaurants, look happy.

In today's world people who look serene are often thought to be intelligent since they "know the truth about life". They could just as easily be numb from drugs or alcohol.