Five Hundred Arhats No.106 · The Venerable Golden Topknot | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.106 The Venerable Golden Topknot

'Golden topknot' describes a crown-knot like gold, a mark of adornment, gold signifying purity without stain and rare nobility; the name marks one who crowns himself with boundless merit and whose crown-mark of wisdom is perfect. The venerable wears his topknot high with a warm, gentle countenance, showing the saintly bearing of complete fortune and virtue, upright marks and the ornament of meritorious adornment.

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