Five Hundred Arhats No.324 · The Venerable Lamp as Guide | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.324 The Venerable Lamp as Guide

'Lamp as guide' means taking the bright lamp of wisdom as vanguard, acting as a guide for beings in the dark, leading them out of the lost path; the name marks one who uses the wisdom-lamp as guide, breaking darkness and pointing out delusion. The venerable makes a lamp-holding or pointing gesture with an alert look, possessing the awareness of the lamp as guide, wisdom-lamp breaking dark, pointing the lost way, serving beings as a vanguard of light.

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