There is an expression, “if you meet a Buddha on the road, kill him.” I think that is sort of a profound spiritual teaching wrapped in a benign seeming riddle.
I knew a vampyre witch a while back, that had a laughing buddha statue in her home.The statue was a portal for her vampires. In the astral, they looked like buddha, but were not. So, it is possible that what you saw were demon that had a buddha appearance. An Asian looking entity that deluded the appearance of buddha.