Five Hundred Arhats No.34 · The Venerable Kumāralāta | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.34 The Venerable Kumāralāta

Kumāralāta (also called Kumāralabdha, 'the youth-received') was an Indian master of the Sautrāntika (Sūtra) school and its founding expositor, a learned and eloquent śāstra-master who composed treatises to instruct later generations. The venerable is lean and spare of face with a wise expression, carrying the air of a patriarch who probes the sūtras and enlightens those who follow.

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