Sixteen Arhats
The Sixteen Arhats (Japanese: 十六羅漢, 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 became more popular, but worship of the sixteen Arhats continues to the present day in Japan and Tibet. In Japan sixteen Arhats are particularly popular in Zen Buddhism, where they are treated as examples of behaviour.[1] 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,[2] composed by the Kashmiri teacher Shakyahribhadra (1127-1225).[3] They are also well represented in Tibetan art.[4]
![](../I/16_Arhats.aka.Luohans.a.k.a.Juroku_Rakan.wittig.collection.detail.edited.working.print.01..jpg.webp)
The sixteen Arhats are:
Sanskrit | Chinese | Japanese pronunciation | Tibetan | Tibetan pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Piṇḍola Bhāradvāja | 賓度羅跋囉惰闍尊者 | Bindorabaradaja sonja | བྷ་ར་དྭ་ཛ་སོ་ཉོམ་ལེན | Bharadodza Sönyom Le |
Kanakavatsa | 迦諾迦伐蹉尊者 | Kanakabassa sonja | གསེར་གྱི་བེའུ | Sergyi Be'u |
Kanaka Bhāradvāja/Kanaka | 迦諾迦跋釐堕闍尊者 | Kanakabarudaja sonja | བྷ་ར་དྭ་ཛ་་གསེར་ཅན | Baradadza Serchen/Serchen |
Subinda/Abhedya | 蘇頻陀尊者 | Sobinda sonja | མི་ཕྱེད་པ | Michepa |
Nakula/Bakula | 諾距羅尊者 | Nakora sonja | བ་ཀུ་ལ | Bakula |
Śrībhadra/Bhadra | 跋陀羅尊者 | Badara sonja | བཟང་པོ | Pal Zangpo |
Mahākālika/Kālika | 迦哩迦尊者 | Kalika sonja | དུས་ལྡན | Düden Chenpo |
Vajriputra | 伐闍羅弗多羅尊者 | Bajarafutara sonja/Bajarahottara sonja | རྡོ་རྗེ་མོའི་བུ | Dorje Möbu |
Gopaka/Jīvaka | 戎博迦尊者 | Jubaka sonja | སྦྱེ་བྱེད་པ | Bé Chépa |
Panthaka | 半託迦尊者 | Hantaka sonja | ལམ་བསྟན | Lamchenten |
Rāhula | 囉怙羅尊者 | Ragora sonja | སྒྲ་གཅན་འཛིན | Drachen Dzin |
Nāgasena | 那伽犀那尊者 | Nagasaina sonja | ཀླུ་སྡེ | Lü Dé |
Aṅgaja | 因掲陀尊者 | Ingada sonja | ཡན་ལག་འབྱུང | Yenlak Jung |
Vanavāsin | 伐那婆斯尊者 | Banabashi sonja | ནགས་ན་གནས | Nagnanepa |
Ajita | 阿氏多尊者 | Ajita sonja | མ་ཕམ་པ | Ma Phampa |
Cūḍapanthaka/Kṣudrapanthaka | 注荼半吒迦尊者 | Chudahantaka sonja | ལམ་ཕྲན་བསྟན | Lamtren Ten |
- The Sixteen Arhats in Art
- Covered Box in the Shape of Sixteen Arhats in a Begging Bowl
- 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