Allen Ginsberg - Original Signed Drawing – Buddha's Footprint.

Allen GINSBERG (1926.1997) Original signed drawing – Buddha's Footprint. One page in-16° (9.50 x 10 cm, at sight) on fine blue paper. London. August 16, 1967. Rare document by the American poet, founding member of the Beat Generation, depicting three single-headed fish, mixing, in the center, the all-seeing eye, and considered by Ginsberg to be the footprint of Buddha. ______________________________________________________ In 1967, in the Catholic Worker, Ginsberg details his 1962 discovery in India: “I saw the three fish, one head, carved on the inner sole of the bare stone of Buddha's footprint at Bodh-Gaya, under the Bo tree. Stone feet or soles are a traditional form of votive marker. Mythologically, the 32 signs—like the stigmata—of the Buddha include chakras (magic wheels symbolic of energy) on the hands and feet. It is a kind of fish chakra. Thus, ancient artists carved large feet as symbols of the enlightened man—before the Greeks introduced the representation of the human face of Buddha. They never had statues of him—umbrellas, Bo trees, or feet—until Alexander arrived in India. In 1967, Ginsberg was in London and regularly rubbed shoulders with Paul McCartney, discussing counterculture and the decriminalization of drugs. Ginsberg participated in the Hyde Park hippie gathering on July 18 and gave multiple readings of his texts in the British capital.