Five Hundred Arhats No.325 · The Venerable Dharma as Ambrosia | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.325 The Venerable Dharma as Ambrosia

'Dharma as ambrosia' means the Buddha's teaching is like amṛta, the nectar of immortality: to obtain it is to leave birth-and-death and realize nirvāṇa, the taste of Dharma sweet and cool; the name marks one who teaches the ambrosia Dharma, giving beings the deathless taste. The venerable makes a granting gesture with a fresh look, possessing the freshness of the wondrous ambrosia teaching, cool Dharma-taste, quenching the thirst of saṃsāra, bathing beings in the deathless nectar.

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