Arhat 羅漢
(Sanskrit: अर्हत arhat; Pali: arahant),
in Buddhism,
signifies a spiritual practitioner who
has realized certain high stages of attainment.
500 Arhats 五百羅漢
are the group of arhats who assembled to
recite the general teachings of the Buddha,
at the First Council,
which is said to have taken place shortly after
the Buddha went into nirvana.
The bodhisattvas assemble in order to
preserve the Mahayana teachings.
the number 'five hundred' indicates
a great number rather than actual headcount.
16 Arhats 十六阿羅漢 / 十六尊者
were actually part of
that first group of 500 (or great number) who
attended the First Council, but
they vowed to renounce nirvana in order to
devote themselves more effectively to
the relief of human misery, like bodhisattvas.
info taken from Maitreya Project
The 18 Arhats 十八羅漢
are depicted in Mahayana Buddhism as
the original followers of the Buddha who
have followed the Eightfold Path and
attained the Four Stages of Enlightenment.
They have reached the state of Nirvana and
are free of worldly cravings.
They are charged to protect the Buddhist faith and
to await on earth for the coming of
Maitreya 彌勒菩薩,
a prophesied enlightened Buddha to
arrive on earth many millennia after
Gautama Buddha's death and nirvana.
Ten Principal Disciples Of Buddha 十大弟子
the arhats originally composed of
only 10 disciples of Gautama Buddha,
although the earliest Indian sutras indicate
only 4 of them,
Pindola, Kundadhana, Panthaka and Nakula,
were instructed to await the coming of Maitreya.
Later this number increased to 16 to
include patriarchs and other spiritual adepts.
Teachings about the Arhats eventually made their way
to China where they were called Luohan 羅漢
but it wasn't until 654 AD when
the Nandimitrāvadāna Record on
the Duration of the Law,
spoken by the Great arhat Nadimitra, was
translated by Xuanzang 玄奘 into Chinese that
the names of these arhats were known.
Somewhere between the late Tang Dynasty and
early Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of China
two other arhats were added to the roster
increasing the number to 18.
in short
the number does not really matter
more relevant is what does arhat actually means
and one more thing,
the term could vary based on
the respective schools and traditions,
mainly Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism
anecdotes
since 500 is more like a lump sum digit
rather than the exact persons in total
and people generally interpret arhat as
a respectable scholar
there are some variants in terms of
the sculptures of a specific arhat
eg,
among the 500 Arhats in
the Bao Guan temple of Sichuan district
there are two respectable emperors of Qing Dynasty:
Kang Xi 康熙 and his grandson Qian Long 乾隆
and
and in some instances,
Marco Polo was depicted as the 100th Arhat
how about that?
Marco Polo?
during my recent visit to
one of the 500 Arhats halls
I was trying quite hard to
find the 100th Arhat, Marco Polo
but couldn’t find it
at first I thought it is because
there isn't any label of the names
damn… (oops sorry)
then now only I realized after some google-ing
the Marco Polo arhat statute has been
transferred to (stolen? looted? robbed? presented?)
Museo Correr in Venice
photos and from 舊影志
the Marco Polo sculpture,
China version in Museo Correr Venice
the Marco Polo sculpture among the arhats
during 1949, in Life magazine
however..
hey
the gestures of the two sculptures do
slightly differ from each other,
so which is which?
but at least
it does go on to prove one thing
Marco Polo has indeed been enlisted in the
hall of fame of 500 Arhats
500 Arhats Hall, Guangzhou 五百羅漢堂
is built in 1849 in
the 1400 years old
Hua Lin Temple in Guangzhou 華林禪寺，廣州
looks like this today
Maitreya 彌勒菩薩
recap:
a prophesied enlightened Buddha to
arrive on earth many millennia after
Gautama Buddha's death and nirvana
Skanda 韋陀尊者
is a Mahayana bodhisattva
who is a devoted guardian of Buddhist monasteries
Bodhidharma 達摩祖師
is traditionally credited as the transmitter of
Ch'an 禪 (Sanskrit: Dhyāna, Japanese: Zen)
to China, and regarded as
the first Chinese patriarch 祖師
Sarira Pagoda 舍利塔
built in 1701, to store
22 Buddha relics
is Bodhidharma one of the arhats?
supposedly nope
because.. he is
a Buddhist monk who lived during
the 5th/6th century CE
but who knows
if Marco Polo and Emperor Kangxi are there
that’s the fun part, isn’t it
