Aniko, Anige or Araniko (Nepali: अरनिको, Chinese: 阿尼哥; 1245–1306) was one of the key figures in the arts of Nepal and the Yuan dynasty of China, and the artistic exchanges in these areas.

Araniko led a team of 80 artists to China proper and Tibet to make a number of pagoda-style buildings.

An anecdote from his epitaph relates that when he was three years old, his parents in took the child to a temple to pay homage to the Buddha.

At school, he mastered his textbooks and became a good calligrapher in such a short time that even the venerable elders acknowledged their inferiority.

[4] The event that brought Arniko to Tibet, and eventually to the Yuan court in Shangdu (today's Beijing), was Kublai Khan's decree of 1260 CE to Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, the fifth patriarch of Sakya sect of Tibetan Buddhism, to build a golden stupa for Suer chi wa (Tibetan: "Chos rje pa" or "the Lord of Dharma"), that is the Sakya Pandita Kun dga' rgyal mtshan (1182–1251), the fourth patriarch of the sect.

In April 1260, Kublai was elected as the Great Khan by his own supporters, to rival the claim of his younger brother Ariq Böke.

In the twelfth month of 1260, he appointed Phagpa his Imperial preceptor and granted him a jade seal and the position of leader of Buddhism.

By doing so Kublai officially acknowledged Phagpa as his highest religious authority and was obliged to patronize the Sakya teaching.

The building of the stupa was not only a tribute to the Sakya Pandita but intended also as a project to win religious blessings in a critical year.

He intended to recruit one hundred artists, but Jayabhimadeva, the king of Nepal at the time, was able to hand over only eighty.

With his appointment as Imperial Preceptor in 1260, it must have been his vision and ambition for the future propagation of his sect throughout the still-growing Mongol empire that he tried to scour for more artists.

Phagpa immediately recognized his exceptional artistic skill and administrative ability and entrusted him to supervise the construction.

Since no artist in China could make the bewildering array of Himalayan Tantric deities that would be indispensable for his religious activities, he needed to bring with him someone who could.

Phagpa accepted Arniko as his disciple and initiated him into secret Buddhist treaties, thus elevating his social status above an ordinary artisan.

In the second month of 1265, Arniko finished the restoration and the statue looked so perfect that even the most skilled artists of China greatly admired his work.

In 1961, then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai signed a Proclamation stating that the Temple was to be protected as a National Treasure.

The portraits of Kublai Khan and his wife Chabi, now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, are believed to be his handiwork.

Decorated with Ta Sa Thu, an equivalent of a minister, he is among the few foreigners whose biography can be found in Chinese imperial history books.

Another important source is Arniko's official biography in Song Lian and Wang Yi, Yuanshi (The Yuan History), compiled under the supervision of the early Ming dynasty.

Arniko had six sons, two of whom, Asengge (阿僧哥) and Ashula (阿述腊) followed his career path as artists working for the Yuan dynasty.

Of his death Cheng Jufu writes: On the eighth of March of 1306, he looked at the people around himself and said, "If I am going, you should set up curtains in the hall and a couch, so that I can pass away in peaceful sleep."

The artworks from his institutions, stupas, and the two Yuan portraits from his hand demonstrate that by drawing inspiration from the artistic traditions of Pāla, Nepal, and China.

After the collapse of Mongol rule in China, Arniko's artistic legacy and innovation continued to influence Buddhist art at the Ming and Qing courts.