Five Hundred Arhats No.228 · The Venerable Sandalwood Store | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.228 The Venerable Sandalwood Store

'Sandalwood store' is like candana sandalwood holding every fragrance, one store containing boundless fragrant virtue—its scent so fine it is smelled even against the wind; the name marks one who holds within the fragrance of discipline, stillness and wisdom. The venerable looks warm and gently fragrant, possessing the warmth of a sandalwood store of virtue held without leaking, its sweet repute reaching far, perfuming self and others with the scent of pure discipline.

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