Sixteen Arhats


The Sixteen Arhats 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 later became much more popular, but worship of the sixteen Arhats still continues to the present day in China, Japan and Tibet. In Japan sixteen Arhats are particularly popular in Zen Buddhism, where they are treated as examples of behaviour. In Tibet, the sixteen Arhats, also known as sixteen sthaviras are the subject of a liturgical practice associated with the festival of the Buddha's birth, composed by the Kashmiri teacher Shakyahribhadra. They are also well represented in Tibetan art.
The sixteen Arhats are:
SanskritChinesePinyinRōmajiTibetanTibetan pronunciation
Piṇḍola Bhāradvāja賓度羅跋囉惰闍尊者Bīndùluóbáluōduòdū zūnzhěBindorabaradaja sonjaབྷ་ར་དྭ་ཛ་སོ་ཉོམ་ལེནBharadwadza Sönyom Le
Kanakavatsa迦諾迦伐蹉尊者Jiānuòjiāfácuō zūnzhěKanakabassa sonjaགསེར་གྱི་བེའུSergyi Be'u
Kanaka Bhāradvāja/Kanaka迦諾迦跋釐堕闍尊者Jiānuòjiābálíduòdū zūnzhěKanakabarudaja sonjaབྷ་ར་དྭ་ཛ་་གསེར་ཅནBaradwadza Serchen/Serchen
Subinda/Abhedya蘇頻陀尊者Sūpíntuó zūnzhěSobinda sonjaམི་ཕྱེད་པMichepa
Nakula/Bakula諾距羅尊者Nuòjùluó zūnzhěNakora sonjaབ་ཀུ་ལBakula
Śrībhadra/Bhadra跋陀羅尊者Bátuóluó zūnzhěBadara sonjaབཟང་པོPal Zangpo
Mahākālika/Kālika迦哩迦尊者Jiālījiā zūnzhěKarika sonjaདུས་ལྡནDüden Chenpo
Vajriputra伐闍羅弗多羅尊者Fádūluófúduōluó zūnzhěBajarafutara sonja/Bajarahottara sonjaརྡོ་རྗེ་མོའི་བུDorje Möbu
Gopaka/Jīvaka戎博迦尊者Róngbójiā zūnzhěJubaka sonjaསྦྱེ་བྱེད་པBé Chépa
Panthaka半託迦尊者Bàntuōjiā zūnzhěHantaka sonjaལམ་བསྟནLamchenten
Rāhula囉怙羅尊者Luōhùluó zūnzhěRagora sonjaསྒྲ་གཅན་འཛིནDrachen Dzin
Nāgasena那伽犀那尊者Nàjiāxīnà zūnzhěNagasaina sonjaཀླུ་སྡེLü Dé
Aṅgaja因掲陀尊者Yīnjiētuó zūnzhěIngada sonjaཡན་ལག་འབྱུངYenlak Jung
Vanavāsin伐那婆斯尊者Fánàpósī zūnzhěBanabashi sonjaནགས་ན་གནསNagnanepa
Ajita阿氏多尊者Āshìduō zūnzhěAjita sonjaམ་ཕམ་པMa Phampa
Cūḍapanthaka/Kṣudrapanthaka注荼半吒迦尊者Zhùtúbànzhājiā zūnzhěChudahantaka sonjaལམ་ཕྲན་བསྟནLamtren Ten