Five Hundred Arhats of Changnyeongsa Temple

Arhats from the Changnyeongsa Temple, ca. 918-1392, Chuncheon National Museum of Korea. Image © Chuncheon National Museum of Korea.

The Five Hundred Arhats displayed in this exhibition were discovered in 2001–02 among the ruins of the Changnyeongsa temple in Yeongwol, Gangwon-do Province in South Korea. Believed to be between 600 and 1000 years old, they refer to the five hundred disciples of the Buddha who gathered together in order to compile his teachings into the Buddhist sutras. In Buddhism, an arhat — or nahan in Korean — is one who has attained enlightenment. The figures include one Buddha and 50 arhat statues with lifelike expressions, from joy and serenity to anger and sorrow.