Arhat Rides a Tiger

The Chinese title is 羅漢, meaning Arhat

This wall scroll features Damo or Bodhidharma, the Indian monk credited with founding the Chan (or Zen) tradition of East Asian Buddhism.

Here, he is featured riding a tiger. He is credited with doing many seemingly impossible things - riding a tiger without getting eaten or being thrown off would qualify as seemingly impossible.

More Zen and other Buddhism terms

This part is going to confuse you, as this man is sometimes portrayed as being Persian, Indian, or Chinese. And he has been given many names such as Bodhidharma or simply Dharma. He has a name in virtually every language. Here are a few of them:

In Chinese, his name is . This is sometimes Romanized as Da Mo, Damo, Tamo, or the full name Putidamo or Putitamo.
His Name in Japanese is "Daruma" which is probably meant to sound like "Dharma" as in "Bodhi-Dharma".
In Korean he is Boridalma.
Vietnamese: Bồ-đề-đạt-ma.

If you want to know more about Bodhidharma / Da Mo you can probably do a terrific Bodhidharma Google search.

About the Art...

This is a very detailed painting that is mounted to a silk wall scroll. A lot of work went into this. It actually takes the artist almost a full day to complete.

You won't be disappointed if you become the owner of this work of art. I guarantee it personally or your money back.

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About the Artist...

The artist's name is (Zhong Qi) from near Guilin, China. The inscription includes his signature and the indication that this was painted in 2008.