The Buddhist elder Pindola Bharadvaja

The sixteen arhats were elder disciples of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. Their name translates as “foe destroyer” in Tibet, since they have destroyed the foe of negative emotions (klesha) and thus realized enlightenment (nirvana). They are worshipped in Tibet as propagators of the faith. In this painting, the arhat Pindola Bharadvaja reads his book and holds his alms bowl—his telltale characteristics. Note how the book the arhat is reading is bound in the Chinese manner. Tibetan books consists of loose pages and are never bound together. The arhat is turning the pages with a stick, a common practice among Chinese scholars. Floating on a visionary cloud above the arhat is an image of Amitayus, the Buddha of Long Life. Many thangkas bearing the latter’s image were commissioned during the eighteenth century by the Qianlong emperor, to celebrate his mother’s birthday and his own.