Five Hundred Arhats No.500 · The Venerable Vowed to Serve All | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.500 The Venerable Vowed to Serve All

'Vowed to serve all' means making a great vow to ever gladly serve all beings, acting as their servant, serving the multitude with a humble vowed heart, bearing beings' suffering; as the final, perfecting one of the five hundred arhats, it signifies great-vow service and humble altruism. The venerable makes an attending gesture with a humble look, possessing the modesty of vowing to serve all, humble service, bearing beings' suffering, attending the multitude with a great-vow heart.

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