Subject: Footprints & Handprints Main Page

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Footprints & Handprints Masterworks

- Art History

- Iconography

- Religious Context

Videos:
- Handprints & Footprints: Part 1
- Handprints & Footprints: Part 2
- Drogdze Wangmo: HAR 65925
- Shingkyong Ragyal: HAR 712

The Tibetan custom of having drawings done based on the physical outline of a teachers feet appears to be an oral instruction coming down from Gampopa Sonam Rinchen. The most famous early text describing this practice was written by Pagmodrupa Dorje Gyalpo - a direct student of Gampopa. A number of early paintings are known that depict the feet of Drigung and Taglung teachers. Currently there are only about four paintings known - in the East or the West - depicting a Karmapa with footprints.

Handprints, placed solely as a blessing rather than as an object of worship or reverence, are also found on the reverse of many paintings.

Topics:
- Deities
- Teachers
- Footprints
--- Stylized
--- Real
- Handprints
- Chronology/Region
- Medium

Jeff Watt 11-2010 [updated 5-2017]

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Essay: PRESENCE AND POWER: FOOTPRINTS IN TIBETAN ART by Kathyrn Selig Brown

Publication: Eternal Presence. Handprints and Footprints in Buddhist Art. Kathryn Selig Brown. Katonah Museum of Art, 2004.