Five Hundred Arhats No.61 · The Venerable Free of Karma, Past Bonds Exhausted | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.61 The Venerable Free of Karma, Past Bonds Exhausted

'Free of karma' means creating no fresh bondage, and 'past bonds exhausted' means the old karma of former lives is spent, the round of birth ended. The venerable wears a liberated, serene expression, embodying the ease of one whose karma is ended and delusions gone, whose task is done, never to be reborn.

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