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Title	Recumbent Buddha statue: Soles of the Buddha's feet: Buddhapāda
Photographer	de Silva, Preethi
Built by	King Valagamba --Vattagāmani Abhaya (103 BCE and circa 89–77 BCE) and other later monarchs
Subject	Buddha Statues
Site Location	Sässēruwa (Räs vehera)
City/Region	North Central province, 11 km west of Avukana (location of famous Buddha statue).
Country	Sri Lanka
Year Established	1st century BCE, and later
Description	The soles of the feet of the recumbent Buddha are painted in a traditional manner, with circular lotus designs. The Buddhapāda (Buddha's footprint, i.e., the feet sculpted in low relief on stone) were some of the earliest artworks associated with the Buddha and evolving from aniconic to iconic (anthropomorphic) representations of the Buddha used for purposes of veneration. The practice originated in India. Later, recumbent statues of the Buddha included painted soles of the feet, depicting as here, various designs of the lotus flower, which resemble the Dhammachakra wheel representing the turning of the 'Wheel of the law, ' the teachings of the Buddha; other designs also included the symbolic 32, 108 or 132 auspicious characteristics of the Buddha. While many other symbols, too, were depicted on the soles of the feet, in Sri Lanka mainly the Dhammachakra wheel is found after circa the 8th century.
Publisher	Claremont Colleges Library
Date	1999
Reference	For discussion of the Buddha's footprint in statues in Thailand and earlier history, see Claudio Cicuzza, A Mirror Reﬂecting the Entire World: The Pāli Buddhapādamaṅgala, or “Auspicious Signs on the Buddha’s Feet”. Bangkok and Lumbini, 2011. For extensive references on this topic, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_footprint
Collection	Ancient Buddhist Sites and Royal Residences in Sri Lanka - http://cdm15831.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15831coll15
Rights	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Type	Image
Format	image/tiff;
Object File Name	acs00297.tif

Recumbent Buddha statue: Soles of the Buddha's feet: Buddhapāda

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