Padmasambhava handprints and footprints in Himalayan sacred sites

Record summary

A number of Himalayan pilgrimage sites preserve rocks said to bear Padmasambhava’s handprints, footprints, or other bodily impressions. The traditions are connected with the spread of tantric Buddhism and with later treasure, hagiographic, and pilgrimage literature. They matter comparatively because marks attributed to a culturally powerful human or semi-supernatural figure can resemble cryptid “track” claims in their evidentiary structure. Each site must be treated independently, with attention to inscriptional evidence, carving, weathering, and the date at which the attribution first appears.