Five Hundred Arhats No.38 · The Venerable Vasumitra | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.38 The Venerable Vasumitra

Vasumitra (also rendered 'World-Friend') was a great śāstra-master of the Indian Sarvāstivāda school and a pivotal scholar of early sectarian Buddhism who distinguished doctrinal positions with clarity, balancing learning and practice. The venerable is lost in thought with a gracious, ample bearing, carrying the air of a master who analyses doctrine with mastery and ease.

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