Residents of a village in Surat Thani’s Phanom district believe they have found a footprint of the Lord Buddha preserved in limestone on a mountaintop.
Sathaporn Saripat, head of Moo 1 village in Tambon Klong Sok, said the footprint was noticed recently while he was leading a survey of watershed forests as part of a plan to develop community tourism.
He said the impression left in the soft stone near a cliff on Khao Phru Ching Mountain resembles an oversized human footprint. It is 10 to 12 inches long, four or five inches wide and three inches deep.
Sathaporn said he had asked government officials to examine the find. If they say it qualifies to be regarded as an example of the Buddha’s footprint, he said, the villagers will promote the location as a pilgrimage and tourism destination.
Asia has thousands of “natural” Buddha footprints imbedded in rock, chiefly in Japan and Sri Lanka, usually appreciated for their symbolic value rather than as literal relics. The most revered example in Thailand is at Wat Phra Phutthabat in Saraburi.
