Five Hundred Arhats No.459 · The Venerable Pure Nara | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.459 The Venerable Pure Nara

'Pure' is purity and Nara is close to Sanskrit nara, 'person, man'; together they mean a pure person, a pure man, unstained by worldly toil, blameless in the holy life. Listed among the five hundred arhats, the name signifies purity without stain and the virtue of a great person. The venerable appears as an Indian monk with a clean look; the title is kept objectively without invented deeds, conveying only his pure holy life and being unstained by toil.

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