# Sixteen Arhats

The Sixteen Arhats (Chinese: 十六羅漢, pinyin: Shíliù Luóhàn, Rōmaji: Jūroku Rakan; Tibetan: གནས་བརྟན་བཅུ་དྲུག, "Neten Chudrug") are a group of legendary Arhats in Buddhism. The grouping of sixteen Arhats was brought to China, and later to Tibet, from India. In China, an expanded group of Eighteen Arhats later became much more popular, but worship of the sixteen Arhats still continues to the present day in China, Japan and Tibet. In Japan sixteen Arhats are particularly popular in Zen Buddhism, where they are treated as examples of behaviour. In Tibet, the sixteen Arhats, also known as sixteen sthaviras ('elders') are the subject of a liturgical practice associated with the festival of the Buddha's birth, composed by the Kashmiri teacher Shakyahribhadra (1127-1225). They are also well represented in Tibetan art.
The sixteen Arhats are:
| Sanskrit | Chinese | Pinyin | Rōmaji | Tibetan | Tibetan pronunciation |
| Piṇḍola Bhāradvāja | 賓度羅跋囉惰闍尊者 | Bīndùluóbáluōduòdū zūnzhě | Bindorabaradaja sonja | བྷ་ར་དྭ་ཛ་སོ་ཉོམ་ལེན | Bharadwadza Sönyom Le |
| Kanakavatsa | 迦諾迦伐蹉尊者 | Jiānuòjiāfácuō zūnzhě | Kanakabassa sonja | གསེར་གྱི་བེའུ | Sergyi Be'u |
| Kanaka Bhāradvāja/Kanaka | 迦諾迦跋釐堕闍尊者 | Jiānuòjiābálíduòdū zūnzhě | Kanakabarudaja sonja | བྷ་ར་དྭ་ཛ་་གསེར་ཅན | Baradwadza Serchen/Serchen |
| Subinda/Abhedya | 蘇頻陀尊者 | Sūpíntuó zūnzhě | Sobinda sonja | མི་ཕྱེད་པ | Michepa |
| Nakula/Bakula | 諾距羅尊者 | Nuòjùluó zūnzhě | Nakora sonja | བ་ཀུ་ལ | Bakula |
| Śrībhadra/Bhadra | 跋陀羅尊者 | Bátuóluó zūnzhě | Badara sonja | བཟང་པོ | Pal Zangpo |
| Mahākālika/Kālika | 迦哩迦尊者 | Jiālījiā zūnzhě | Karika sonja | དུས་ལྡན | Düden Chenpo |
| Vajriputra | 伐闍羅弗多羅尊者 | Fádūluófúduōluó zūnzhě | Bajarafutara sonja/Bajarahottara sonja | རྡོ་རྗེ་མོའི་བུ | Dorje Möbu |
| Gopaka/Jīvaka | 戎博迦尊者 | Róngbójiā zūnzhě | Jubaka sonja | སྦྱེ་བྱེད་པ | Bé Chépa |
| Panthaka | 半託迦尊者 | Bàntuōjiā zūnzhě | Hantaka sonja | ལམ་བསྟན | Lamchenten |
| Rāhula | 囉怙羅尊者 | Luōhùluó zūnzhě | Ragora sonja | སྒྲ་གཅན་འཛིན | Drachen Dzin |
| Nāgasena | 那伽犀那尊者 | Nàjiāxīnà zūnzhě | Nagasaina sonja | ཀླུ་སྡེ | Lü Dé |
| Aṅgaja | 因掲陀尊者 | Yīnjiētuó zūnzhě | Ingada sonja | ཡན་ལག་འབྱུང | Yenlak Jung |
| Vanavāsin | 伐那婆斯尊者 | Fánàpósī zūnzhě | Banabashi sonja | ནགས་ན་གནས | Nagnanepa |
| Ajita | 阿氏多尊者 | Āshìduō zūnzhě | Ajita sonja | མ་ཕམ་པ | Ma Phampa |
| Cūḍapanthaka/Kṣudrapanthaka | 注荼半吒迦尊者 | Zhùtúbànzhājiā zūnzhě | Chudahantaka sonja | ལམ་ཕྲན་བསྟན | Lamtren Ten |
* Ming dynasty painting scroll of the Sixteen Arhats by Wu Bin. China. Currently held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
* Ming dynasty painting scroll of the Sixteen Arhats by Qiu Ying. China. Currently held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
* 5.
* Qing dynasty painting scroll of the Sixteen Arhats by Shitao. China. Currently held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
* The Sixteen Arhats from the Alice S. Kandell Collection
* Arhats Rahula, Cudapanthaka, and Pindola
* Arhats Kanakavasta, Vajriputra, Kanaka-Bharadvaja, and Bhadra
* Arhats Ajita, Kalika, and Vanavasin
* Arhats Panthaka, Nagasena, Gopaka, and Abheda
* Other depictions of the Sixteen Arhats in Art
* Painting of Ańgaja (Yīnjiētuó zūnzhě), out of a set depicting the sixteen arhats, by Guanxiu.9th - 10th century. China.
* Song dynasty painting of Ańgaja (Yīnjiētuó zūnzhě), out of a set depicting the sixteen arhats. China. Currently held in the Tokyo National Museum.
* Song dynasty painting of Gopaka/Jīvaka (Róngbójiā zūnzhě), out of a set depicting the sixteen arhats. China. Currently held in the Tokyo National Museum.
* Covered Box in the Shape of Sixteen Arhats in a Begging Bowl
* Pindolabharadrāja (Binzuru) statue in Mitsu-tera Temple, Osaka, Japan.
* Ańgaja (Ingada sonja) holding a stupika in his right hand. Musée Guimet.