Five Hundred Arhats No.81 · The Venerable Pilindavatsa | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.81 The Venerable Pilindavatsa

Pilindavatsa, also rendered Pilinda-vatsa, was a disciple of the Buddha said to have carried a deep-seated habit yet finally realized arhatship while remaining ever mindful and humbly self-aware. The venerable has an artless appearance and an introspective expression, embodying the path of practice in which even deep habitual tendencies are dissolved through awareness, and winning the fruit does not preclude self-examination.

Painted by Li Zongyi in the freehand Chinese ink (xieyi) tradition, the brushwork is fluent and the ink tones layered from dense to pale, capturing the arhat’s spirit in a few assured strokes. The blank paper itself breathes Zen; figure and spirit are one, blending monastic solemnity with the literati’s ease. Each of the Five Hundred Arhats bears its own name and practice, uniting faith, art and collectibility — an original, non-reproducible hand-painted work.

Size: approx. 100×50cm (4.5 square chi) | Traditional hand-painted Chinese ink Zen Buddhist figure painting | On paper