We Swear These Buddha-Shaped Pears Aren’t Photoshopped

These pears are extremely popular, at $8 each.

ByABC News
August 21, 2014, 4:07 PM
A Buddha shaped pear is displayed at an orchard in Weixian county, Hebei province, Sept. 10, 2009. Hao Xianzhang, a local farmer, spent six years perfecting the process by growing the pears inside molds.
A Buddha shaped pear is displayed at an orchard in Weixian county, Hebei province, Sept. 10, 2009. Hao Xianzhang, a local farmer, spent six years perfecting the process by growing the pears inside molds.
Pillar Lee/Reuters

— -- A farmer in China has successfully grown pears in the shape of Buddha, and they are in high demand by customers.

Xianzhang Hao from China’s Hebei province grew 10,000 of these “Buddha pears” in his backyard, and now he is selling them for $8 each.

“These pears are really popular because they represent good luck,” Hao told Sina China.

Hao said he got the idea from an old Chinese myth about a magic fruit in the shape of Buddha. Whoever ate that rare fruit would gain immortality.

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He first started putting pears in the molds when they were still little. As soon as the pears fill up the molds, he would take the molds off and let the pears grow without any constraint. The pears would eventually look like Buddha by the time they ripen.

Buddha is not the only shape of mold that is popular among farmers. A company in China specializes in making plastic fruit molds of all shapes, including square molds for watermelons, star-shaped molds for cucumbers, and heart-shaped molds for tomatoes.