Buddha’s Footprint
Buddha footprint, Gandhara, 1st century
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The footprint of the Buddha (Buddhapada in Sanskrit) is an imprint of Gautama Buddha's one or both feet. It comes in two forms: natural, as found in stone or rock, and artificial engravement. Many of the "natural" ones, of course, are acknowledged not to be actual footprints of the Buddha, but replicas or representations of them, which can be considered relics in Buddhism and also an early symbolic representation of the Buddha.
The footprints of the Buddha abound throughout Asia, dating from various periods. Japanese author Motoji Niwa , who spent years tracking down the footprints in many Asian countries, estimates that he found more than 3,000 such footprints, among them about 300 in Japan and more than 1,000 in Sri Lanka. They often bear distinguishing marks, such as a Dharma chakra at the center of the sole, or the 32, 108 or 132 auspicious signs of the Buddha, engraved or painted on the sole.
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Buddha’s footprint drawing, Allen Ginsberg, 1982
