Arhats & Arhat Appearance - Updated
Arhat (Tibetan: ne tan): a Sanskrit term for Buddhist saints, more correctly in Tibetan meaning elder or 'sthavira' in Sanskrit. The arhats represent the earliest followers of the Buddha, always found depicted in a group of sixteen, they are painted on cloth, wall murals, and fashioned of metal, stone, clay, or wood.
An early iconographic source for the individual descriptions of the arhats is the verse text Praise to the Sixteen Arhats attributed to the Kashmiri teacher Shakyashri Bhadra of the 12th/13th century.
The earliest known paintings in Tibet are found as wall murals in Dratang Monastery in Central Tibet. However, the Dratang arhat paintings do not appear to depict the group of sixteen which gain popularity in Tibetan art some time later.