Five Hundred Arhats No.409 · The Venerable Vimalakīrti | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.409 The Venerable Vimalakīrti

Vimalakīrti (Sanskrit) means 'stainless renown'; though amid worldly toil his heart is ever pure, his name free of stain, expounding the Mahāyāna through the doctrine of non-duality. Listed among the five hundred arhats, the name signifies purity without stain, renown spreading far. The venerable appears as a lay Indian sage with a clear, open look; the title is kept objectively without invented deeds, conveying only his being unstained amid toil and his pure name spreading afar.

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