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Printing woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana and miscellaneous Buddhist scriptures

Inscribed 2007

What is it

The Tripitaka Koreana is a Korean collection of the Tripitaka or Buddhist scriptures which were carved onto 81,258 wooden printing blocks in the 13th century. The collection is stored at Haeinsa Monastery in southwest Korea.

Why was it inscribed

The Tripitaka Koreana is the only existing example of a Tripitaka in the form of wooden blocks and the only complete canon of Buddhist scriptures still extant on the Asian mainland. The Tripitaka and the associated scriptures at Haeinsa Monastery are examples of the best printing and publishing techniques of the period.

Where is it

Haeinsa Monastery, South Gyeongsang province, Republic of Korea

The Tripitaka, or Daejanggyeong in Korean, refers to the collection of Buddhist scriptures, or Buddhist canon, that relate to discourses with the Buddha, regulations of monastic life and commentaries on the sutras by renowned monks and scholars. The Tripitaka Koreana is the oldest extant complete canon of Buddhist scripture edited, compiled and collated from the various contemporary Tripitakas that did not survive to the present.

After Buddhism was transmitted to East Asia through China and Buddhist scriptures were translated from various Indian and Central Asian languages into classical Chinese (the lingua franca of educated discourse throughout East Asia, including Korea), several countries tried to inscribe them in wooden printing blocks for distribution. However, the Tripitaka Koreana is the only complete canon still extant on the mainland of Asia.

The first edition of the Tripitaka was begun in 1011 and completed in 1087. However, it was destroyed in 1234 during a Mongol invasion. The Goryeo royal dynasty of Korea (AD 918–1392) commissioned the production of another Tripitaka in 1236. According to inscriptions on the blocks, as many as 1800 scribes worked on the job, which was completed in 1251. This edition is the Tripitaka Koreana and from these printing blocks, the monastery continually printed, published and distributed new copies whenever the need arose.

Each of the 81,258 blocks was meticulously prepared and individually inscribed with care and regularity. The blocks are 24.2 cm long, 69.7 cm wide, 3.6 cm thick and weigh about 3.5 kg. They exemplify the pinnacle of East Asian woodblock printing techniques and their durability is such that the blocks can still print crisp, complete copies of the Tripitaka, more than 760 years after their creation. All other woodblock Tripitakas have since been destroyed or lost.

A monk holds a block of the Tripitaka Koreana.

Haeinsa Monastery

The quality of its editing, compilation and collation mean the Tripitaka Koreana is acknowledged as the most accurate of the Tripitakas written in classical Chinese. A standard critical edition for East Asian Buddhist scholarship, it has been widely distributed and used over the ages. Many of the works it contains exist nowhere else in the world.

Also listed on the Register is Haeinsa Monastery’s collection of 5987 individual woodblocks of miscellaneous Buddhist scriptures which the monks had commissioned directly to supplement the Tripitaka. These included Buddhist scriptures and precepts, as well as research work in Buddhism, Buddhist history, discourses and narratives by notable Buddhist monk-scholars, and various Buddhist illustrations and iconography.

These wooden printing blocks became a medium through which knowledge could be produced and distributed continuously. As a result, the monastery became a central locus for the traditional practice of knowledge transmission, where Buddhist education and scholastic research could be conducted.

Even today, Haeinsa Monastery carries on this tradition as a centre of Buddhist scholastic study, as the designated Dharma-Jewel Monastery of Korea, responsible for the teaching and transmission of the Dharma which is one of the Three Precious Jewels of Buddhism – the Buddha, the Dharma (his teachings) and the Sangha (the community of monks and nuns).