Footprint Thangka of Drigung Jigten

Two enormous footprints dominate this rare silk painting, their faint outlines still visible despite centuries of fading. Although the composition is centered on the tantric deity Chakrasamvara embracing Vajravarahi, the true focus of the work is the pair of footprints associated with Drigung Jigten Sumgon (1143–1217), founder of the Drigung Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Chakrasamvara appears at the center of the composition, blue in color and standing in union with Vajravarahi. Above him is a lineage of seven gurus, while Sakyamuni appears among the surrounding figures. Along the outer registers are celebrated Indian mahasiddhas, including King Indrabhuti, Virupa, Lakshminkara, Dombi Heruka riding a tiger with his consort, Saraha holding a bow across his shoulders, and Kukkuripa accompanied by his dog. Together they establish the tantric lineage within which the Drigung tradition traced its authority.

At the center of the upper register sits Drigung Jigten Sumgon himself, the principal disciple of Phagmodrupa and founder of Drikung Thil Monastery. Flanking him are the monumental footprints that give the painting its name. Their scale and prominence transform the work from a conventional lineage painting into something more intimate and immediate.

As David Jackson has observed, the footprints may once have been actual impressions applied to the silk using a dye that has since faded. If so, the painting may date to Jigten Sumgon's own lifetime, and the cloth itself may have been sanctified through direct contact with the master's feet. Such a possibility places the work in the rare category of objects that function simultaneously as images and as relics, preserving not merely the likeness of a revered teacher but a physical trace of his presence.

Footprints and handprints occupy a special place in Buddhist devotional practice, serving as tangible signs of enlightened beings and revered teachers. In Tibet, impressions associated with important religious masters were treasured as objects of blessing, linking devotees to the living transmission of a lineage. The present painting appears to belong to this tradition, while also embedding those sacred traces within a sophisticated tantric and lineage-based visual program.

Comparable examples are known, including a closely related footprint painting published by Kathryn H. Selig Brown in Eternal Presence: Handprints and Footprints in Buddhist Art and a silk thangka formerly in the Zimmerman Collection and published by Pratapaditya Pal, yet works of this type remain exceptionally rare.

Today the footprints survive only as pale outlines across the aged silk. Yet their faded appearance only heightens the painting's significance. Rather than functioning solely as a painted representation of Drigung Jigten Sumgon, the thangka may preserve a physical trace of the master himself. If the footprints were indeed made through direct contact with his feet, the silk would have served not only as an image but also as a relic associated with the founder of the Drigung Kagyu tradition.