Sixteen Arhats

The 16 Arhats, with various associated symbolic items; as depicted in a "gentle caricature" style Japanese painting, late 19th - early 20th century

The Sixteen Arhats (Japanese: 十六羅漢, Jūroku Rakan; Tibetan: གནས་བརྟན་བཅུ་དྲུག, "Neten Chudrug") are a group of legendary Arhats in Buddhism. The grouping of sixteen Arhats was brought to China, and later to Tibet, from India. In China, an expanded group of Eighteen Arhats became more popular, but worship of the sixteen Arhats continues to the present day in Japan and Tibet. In Japan sixteen Arhats are particularly popular in Zen Buddhism, where they are treated as examples of behaviour.^[1] In Tibet, the sixteen Arhats, also known as sixteen sthaviras ('elders') are the subject of a liturgical practice associated with the festival of the Buddha's birth,^[2] composed by the Kashmiri teacher Shakyahribhadra (1127-1225).^[3] They are also well represented in Tibetan art.^[4]

The sixteen Arhats are:

• The Sixteen Arhats in Art
• 
  Covered Box in the Shape of Sixteen Arhats in a Begging Bowl
• 
  Pindolabharadrāja (Binzuru) statue in Mitsu-tera Temple, Osaka, Japan.
• 
  Ańgaja (Ingada sonja) holding a stupika in his right hand. Musée Guimet.

• The Sixteen Arhats from the Alice S. Kandell Collection
• 
  Arhats Rahula, Cudapanthaka, and Pindola
• 
  Arhats Kanakavasta, Vajriputra, Kanaka-Bharadvaja, and Bhadra
• 
  Arhats Ajita, Kalika, and Vanavasin
• 
  Arhats Panthaka, Nagasena, Gopaka, and Abheda

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 16 Arhats.

• Eighteen Arhats

Notes