Sixteen Arhats

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 (Japanese: 十六羅漢, Juroku 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 sixteen Arhats are:

Sanskrit	Chinese	Japanese pronunciation	Tibetan	Tibetan pronunciation
Pindola Bharadvāja	賓度羅跋囉惰闍尊者	Bindora Baradāja sonja	བྷ་ར་དྭ་ཛ་སོ་ཉོམ་ལེན	Baradadza Sonyomlen
Kanakavatsa	迦諾迦伐蹉尊者	Kanakabassa sonja	གསེར་གྱི་བེའུ	Sergyi Be'u
Kanaka Bharadrāja	迦諾迦跋釐堕闍尊者	Kanakabarudaja sonja	བྷ་ར་དྭ་ཛ་་གསེར་ཅན	Baradadza Serchen
Subinda/Abhedya	蘇頻陀尊者	Subinda sonja	མི་ཕྱེད་པ	Michepa
Nakula/Vakula	諾距羅尊者	Nakola sonja	བ་ཀུ་ལ	Bakula
Bhadra	跋陀羅尊者	Badara sonja	བཟང་པོ	Zangpo
Kālika	迦哩迦尊者	Kalika sonja	དུས་ལྡན	Duden
Vajriputra	伐闍羅弗多羅尊者	Bajarabutara sonja	རྡོ་རྗེ་མོའི་བུ	Dorje Mobu
Jīvaka/Gopaka	戎博迦尊者	Jubaka sonja	སྦྱེ་བྱེད་པ	Bejepa
Panthaka	半託迦尊者	Hantaka sonja	ལམ་བསྟན	Lamten
Rāhula	囉怙羅尊者	Ragon sonja	སྒྲ་གཅན་འཛིན	Drachendzin
Nāgasena	那伽犀那尊者	Nagasena sonja	ཀླུ་སྡེ	Lude
Ańgaja	因掲陀尊者	Ingada sonja	ཡན་ལག་འབྱུང	Yanlag Jung
Vanavāsin	伐那婆斯尊者	Banabasu sonja	ནགས་ན་གནས	Nagnane
Ajita	阿氏多尊者	Ajita sonja	མ་ཕམ་པ	Mapampa
Cūdapanthaka	注荼半吒迦尊者	Chudahantaka sonja	ལམ་ཕྲན་བསྟན	Lamtrenten

• 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)
4. The sixteen arhats in Tibetan art (himalayanart.org)