The standard list of the Ten Great Disciples or Defenders of the Faith is as follows:


Sariputra She-li

Maha Mandgalya-Yana Mu Lien*

Kasyapa Mo-ho-sai-shih**

Aniruddha A-na-li

Subhuti Su-p'u-ti

Purna Fu-lu-na

Kaliyayava Kai Ch'ang Chien

Upali Yu-po-li

Kohula Ko-lo-lo

Ananda A-nan-to*


Note that these divinities often appear with other names as Lohan in the full group of Eighteen. The most commonly recognised images of the Ten are:

Ananda : an ageless 'young monk' with his hands together in supplication [q.v.] He was a cousin of the Buddha and became the Second Patriarch. He is also renowned for having attending the Buddha for more than twenty years during which time he learned all of the Buddhas sermons by heart.

Kasyapa : with lengthy eyebrows but nothing like as long as those of Pindola.
He is occasionally said to be the Sixteenth Lohan, Chi Kung Tsu-shih . This is not the same deity as the Living Buddha Chi Kung Huo-fu [q.v.] The Chi Kung Tsu-shih is the Long-eyebrow Lohan who is also called Ch'ang-mei Ch'an-shih, Ch'ang-mei Tsun-chih and Chi Kung Lao Fu P'u-sa .

This long eye-browed Lohan is claimed in Min-nan temples to have been born in Fukien during the Ch'in dynasty and devoted his reverences to Kuan Yin who appeared to him in a dream and made him a Buddha. Wherever he went a cloud went along just above his head. He rid the area of a dangerous snake in a great battle in which he changed his paper fan into a centipede which so bit the snake that it conceded. He was also claimed to have been a famous water diviner, revered since the Sung dynasty. He was tempted, so legend claims, to eat food with fish mixed to make him break his monk's vow of abstinence. He threw the food into the pond where it changed back into live fish again.

The Eighteen Lohan


There are numerous permutations of the list of Eighteen; the so-called standard list is but one of many, and consists of the following in order from the first image on your left as you enter, No 2 and in sequence down the wall to the final, as you leave, with No 1:

2 Kanakavatsa with fly switch and book. He was originallya disciple of the Buddha

4 Subhinda with head on chest in meditation, one of the original Four; was known as the Silent One
Has an alms-bowl and is frequently portrayed snapping his fingers demonstrating the immediacy with which he attained spiritual enlightenment. Also known as Nandimitra.

6 Bhadra asleep with head on books, or with a tigera cousin of The Buddha


8 Vajraputra seated, very lean, hands hidden in robes, with Buddhist objects before him, rosary, sutra, bell, vase, etc.


10 Panthaka hands raised in joy, or sitting on a rock reading sutra, or with a small dragon in an alms bowl. He has also been noted with hands raised and mouth wide open, and referred to as T’o T’ien Lohan, the Lohan who supports Heaven.


12 Nagasena The Black Dragon


14 Vanavasa seated, nursing his right knee and staring into distance, or standing holding a small lion. He can be portrayed with his eyes closed in meditation with his hands grasped around his knees.


16 Chota Panthaka holding a green lion on his shoulder


18 Pindola holding a ring, and with a tiger or two at his feet


17 Nandimitra standing on a raft, holding his staff, umbrella, sutra and scrolls


15 Asita sitting on a small hillock or rock and lost in meditation. Identified by some as the Lohan with the Long Eyebrows


13 Angida kneeling on buffalo with bird and cage beside him



11 Rahula one of the four Great Disciples; usually depicted with Buddha in his heart, or occasionally with a green dragon emerging from a vase. He was the son of the Buddha and is the patron of Buddhist novices.


9 Supaka reading the sutras and ringing a bell



7 Kalika holding a pagoda, though some representations depict him too with very long eyebrows


5 Nakula very similar to and usually indistinguishable from Mi-lo Fu [q.v.]. One of the Buddha’s Great Disciples


3 Kanaka Bharadvaja with incense burner



1 Pindola the Bharadvaja with two storks and very long eyebrows; often holding an open book. Gaunt and haggard.



Note: 17 and 18 were two Han Chinese Lohan included in the group of sixteen Lohan only after the Sung. One is said by some monks to be the First Emperor of the Liang dynasty who welcomed and encouraged Buddhism in China c.a. 6th century AD. He is usually depicted clutching a small book though this characteristic is also to be seen on other Lohan images.

Also included in the group of Eighteen, but only noted each in one monastery [one in Hong Kong and the other in Macau] are Kuan Yin and Bodhidharma [Ta-mo : q.v.].

Possibly the group of Eighteen best known to westerners in Hong Kong are those to be seen in two rows of nine down the sides of the courtyard in front of the main Buddha Hall of the Monastery of the Ten Thousand Buddhas in Shatin in the New Territories. The order in the Shatin temple in which they are arranged varies considerably from what will be seen elsewhere:

1 Hsiang-lung Tsun-chih Lohan with the Descended Dragon*



2 Hsu-p'u-t'i Tsun-chih


3 Pu-ju Mi-to Tsun-chih holding open his chest to reveal the
Buddha within


4 Chia-yeh Hui-to Tsun-chih standing beside a deer


5 P'o-hsiu-p'an-t'ou Tsun-chih wearing a large straw hat


6 P'ang-mei Tsun-chih long eyebrows


7 Chiu-mo-lo-to Tsun-chih Kumarajiva with a 'ju-i against his
shoulder*


8 Ch'ing-ching-hui Tsun-chih fingers raised in blessing


9 Fu-t'o Nan-t'i Tsun-chih pagoda on right palm


10 Fu-hu Tsun-chih the Tiger Suppressor*


11 Ch'eng-chie-tse Tsun-chih fingers raised in blessing


12 P'an-no-t'o-lo Tsun-chih mirror held high in left hand


13 Ma-nu-lo Tsun-chih holding a rose


14 Ching-chu-yeh-chang Tsun-chih with a multi-coloured lion [?]


15 P'o-she-ssu-t'o Tsun-chih


16 Mi-che-chia Tsun-chih Old man with a bump on his forehead and holding a long staff

17 P'u-t'i Ta-mo Tsun-chih Bodhidharma [Ta-mo]*


18 Chie-ta-kuan-hsi Tsun-chih The Lohan of Happiness [a Mi-lo Fu style image, standing holding a rattle staff]


It is virtually impossible to be categorical when identifying images of the majority of Lohan when seen individually, and on occasions even when they are in a group. An example is the Lohan who Subdues Tigers. He has been depicted as a seated monk with a tiger at his feet or under his feet, or even nestling on his knee. An image of another monk, not a Lohan, whose image is identical, was only to be seen around T'ai-hsing in Kiangsi where he was known simply as a “Ch'an Master" , famous for having ordered a man-eating tiger to cease its depredations. It obeyed and followed him as his pet thereafter.

Other lists of Lohans again list the titles and attributes of each, often varying in detail giving as an alternative title for one Lohan the main and sole title of another given elsewhere.

A typical inclusion of a respected Buddhist figure within the group of Lohans is Asvagosha who is also known as Ma Ming [q.v.]. He was keen-witted and broad minded, and probably lived during the 2nd century AD. He is one of two who became deeply respected in China, the other being Nagarjuna. He appears in some groups of Lohan as Ma Ming Tsun-chih and would seem to be characterised by 'gazing at a dragon'. He was to be seen thus at the Wu-wei Chou in Anhui province. In temples and monasteries across central but not southern China his images were to be seen. He bore the title of King or Great Scholar and his birthday was celebrated on the 23rd of the sixth lunar month. Some of the Buddhist handbooks describing the 'saints' of Buddhism name him as a P'u-sa or bodhisattva. One such, printed in Shanghai in 1948, shows him as a youthful man, standing dressed in long robes. He has an urna, a bodhisattva's crown, and he is holding his hands together in prayer. Both he and the white horse standing beside him are standing on clouds.

A number of Lohan have been identified and their biographies related by members of temple communities. A few of these include :

Pu-tai Ho-shang The Cloth-bag Monk, a pot-bellied monk often confused with the Chinese version of Mi-lo Fu, the Laughing Buddha or the Buddha of the Future.

Liang Wu Ti The First emperor of the Liang dynasty

T’i-teng Tsu-che The Lohan carrying the Lamp, said to be a pseudonym of Mu Lien

T’i-ti-chia One of the Buddhist patriarchs, usually portrayed holding a gnarled staff.

Tao-ming Tsun-che The Lohan who Explains the Teachings. A deified Buddhist monk born into the Ch'en family in Muchou during the ninth century AD. In Cilingcing on the north coast of Java is depicted as a standing monk holding a rattle stick in his right hand and holding his left hand up to his chest making the same mudra. Tao-ming is paired with an elderly figure dressed in imperial robes, identified as his father, Min Kung [q.v.]. He has also been represented clutching his knee with clasped hands whilst looking up in contemplation.

Kaundinya Chü-lin One of the earliest converts to Buddhism, ordained by the Buddha.

Yashoda The son of a wealthy merchant who was converted and became another of the earliest disciples of the Buddha.


For other lists of the Lohan, see

Dictionary of Chinese Mythology E T C Werner

Buddhist publications presented free in a great number of monasteries

the numerous printed and published books in Taiwan naming and providing sketches of a great number of deities, including the 500 Lohan, each regrettably and confusingly giving disparate names and titles.

The Five Hundred Lohan


The Lohan as a group tend to be referred to as:

Lohan Tsun-chih or

Lohan Hsing-chün


Large groups of Lohan, usually regarded as five hundred in number, though this is very approximate, have been noted in a number of temples and these too, fall into two categories; those who are portrayed on a single tier [or possibly double tier] within a large, normally square hall and those who stand in a vertical ‘cliff’ behind and beside a large image of Kuan Yin, on the altar backing on to the rear of the main Buddha altar in the main Buddha Hall.