Luohan. China, 20th century

Luohan. China, 20th century.
Polychrome wood.
Measurements: 50 x 24 x 19 cm.
Sometimes, Luóhàn is translated as "Buddha", but this is again a mistake. Luóhàn is not a proper name of a particular character, nor is it synonymous with Buddha*. Luóhàn is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit term arhat, a person well advanced on the spiritual path but who has not yet attained Buddhahood. This was also the name used to refer to the original followers of the Buddha, counted by some traditions as four and by others as ten. Later the number of these original followers was expanded to 16 to include patriarchs and other spiritual adepts. The teachings on arhats traveled from India to China, where the term luóhàn was coined to refer to them. It was in China that two more were added to complete the number of eighteen luóhàn, while in India or Japan they remained as sixteen. In China a cult developed towards these eighteen luóhàn as guardians and protectors of Buddhism. A luohan - often written luóhàn - is the Chinese term for an arhat, one of the historical disciples of the Buddha. As the Buddhist tradition developed, and especially in the Buddhist countries of East Asia, the number of arhats or luohans tended to increase, and at least the most important ones were regarded as quasi-bodhisattvas or fully enlightened beings, within a wide range of supernatural beings and potentates. According to Buddhist tradition, groups of 16, 18 or 500 luohans awaited the arrival of Maitreya, the future Buddha, and these groups were often used in East Asian Buddhist art.