Sometimes one may come across 18 eye-catching statues in some Chinese Buddhist temples. These are the Eighteen Arhats 十八羅漢. In Japan and some other places, there are only sixteen of them. Then, it is said that there are originally only 10 and yet the earliest Indian sutras spoke of 4; Pindola, Kundadhana, Panthaka and Nakula. It is not surprising then that the number of arhats in China wasn't 18 initially. In the fourth century, Chinese mainly focused on Pindola who had been popularized by the book Method for Inviting Pindola 請賓度羅法. Later there were 16 and at one time, Kundadhana's name was dropped and between the late Tang Dynasty and early Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, two more were added, making a total of 18. Arhat, by the way is a Sanskrit word for Arahant. That's supposed to be a perfected person who has freed himself from the bonds of desire and who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved nirvana. The 18 in the temple are supposed to be Buddha's original followers who had been delegated to protect the Buddhist faith and to wait for the coming of Maitreya, the future Buddha. Lay Buddhists probably could not live to wait for Maitreya's coming but don't you think they could and should have a duty to protect their faith?
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