Buddha Footprint

The footprint of the Buddha (Buddhapada in Sanskrit, bussokuseki (仏足石?) in Japanese) is an imprint of Gautama Buddha's one or both feet. There are two forms: natural, as found in stone or rock, and those made artificially. 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 cetiya (Buddhist relics) and also an early aniconic and symbolic representation of the Buddha.

The footprints of the Buddha abound throughout Asia, dating from various periods. Japanese author Motoji Niwa (丹羽基二, Niwa Motoji?), 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 Dharmachakra at the centre of the sole, or the 32, 108 or 132 auspicious signs of the Buddha, engraved or painted on the sole.

Buddhist legend holds that during his lifetime the Buddha flew to Sri Lanka and left his footprint on Adam's Peak to indicate the importance of Sri Lanka as the perpetuator of his teachings, and also left footprints in all lands where his teachings would be acknowledged. In Thailand, the most important of these "natural" footprints imbedded in rock is at Phra Phutthabat in Central Thailand. In China, during Tang Dynasty, the discovery of a large footprint of the Buddha in Chengzhou caused Empress Wu Zetian to inaugurate a new reign name in that year, 701 CE, starting the Dazu (Big Foot) era.

The footprint as a sculptural object has a long history stemming from the first examples made in India. These were made during the pre-Greco-Buddhist phase of Buddhist art at Sanchi, Bharhut, and other places in India, along with the Bo-Tree and the Dharmachakra. Later, the footprint-making tradition became prominent in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand.

The veneration of the feet of gurus or deities were commonplace in ancient India, placing one's head at or under their feet being a ritual gesture declaring a hierarchy. As cetiya, the Buddha's footprint was classified in a variety of ways. Some were uddesika, representational relics, and others were paribhogika, relics of use or of contact, and occasionally saririka, as though they were not just footprints but the Buddha's actual feet. Some of the depictions of the footprints may signify events in the life of the Buddha, but others may have been depictions of people worshipping at footprint shrines. According to French scholar Paul Mus, the footprints were the type of magical objects which "enables one to act at a distance on people related to it."