Qadamgāh (Holy Footprints) and Monastic Caves in Iran

In the search for traces of Buddhism in Islamic Iran , no image of the Buddha survived in any form except in some miniatures. The temples and other physical evidences of the Buddhist past were either eliminated or converted into shrines or mosques during the Islamization of all non-Islamic components of religious culture in Iran. However, two aspects of Buddhist culture that remained were left intact during the process of Islamization and remind us today of the Buddhists of Iran: one is the shrines of the stone-carved footprints, and the other are abandoned rock-hewn caves. A number of these caves in Iran have been studied, as their similarity to known Buddhist caves in Afghanistan and Central Asia point to their Buddhist identity. In this chapter we will examine both of these physical evidences for their history and significance in the transition from Buddhism to Islam in Iran. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.