The Song Dynasty polychrome Arhat statues from the Magic Cliff Monastery, praised as No.1 statues throughout China, are highly valuable in terms of archaeology, art and technology. In this work, we analyzed the pigments of two selected statues using optical microscopy (OM), Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS).It was found that the statues had been repainted several times, at least six. The pigments used are:carbon black for the black pigment; cinnabar, lead red and a mixture of cinnabar, mars red and calcite for red pigments; emerald green, Scheele’s green, clinoatacamite and a mixture of clinoatacamite and lead white for green pigments; a mixture of lead chrome yellow and lead red for orange pigment; azurite and ultramarine for blue pigments; lead white and calcite for white pigment; mars yellow for yellow pigment. The gelled patterning was made of lime. The components of the white layer are lead white and white soil with the elements of silicon (Si), aluminum (Al) and calcium (Ca). It can be concluded that using white soil for white layers and repainting collar edges by gelled patterning and gilding are traditions of the monastery. Judging from the presence of modern colorants, synthetic emerald green, chrome yellow and Scheele’s green, it is also suggested that the last repainting may have been executed at the end of the Qing Dynasty.