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]

The 16 Arhats, with various associated symbolic items; as depicted in a "gentle caricature" style Japanese painting, late 19th - early 20th century

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
• 
  Pindolabharadrāja (Binzuru) statue in Mitsu-tera Temple, Osaka, Japan.
• 
  Ańgaja (Ingada sonja) holding a stupika in his right hand. Musée Guimet.

• 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

See also

• Eighteen Arhats

Notes

1. Manual of Zen Buddhism Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki p.168
2. Translation of the prayer to the sixteen arhats (Lotsawa House)
3. The life of Shakyashribhadra (Dechen) Archived 2014-11-12 at the Wayback Machine
4. The sixteen arhats in Tibetan art (himalayanart.org)