Tripitaka Koreana
King Gojong of Goryeo issued a royal decree in 1237 to carve new wooden printing blocks. This order came after the Mongol invasions had destroyed the first edition of Buddhist scriptures during the Khitan War. The project aimed to invoke divine assistance against the invading forces. Thousands of scholars and craftsmen worked on this massive national commitment. Robert Buswell Jr. compares the effort to the US Apollo program Moon landings of the 1960s. The carving process took twelve years to complete, finishing around 1249. Monks from both the Seon and Gyo schools participated in the work. Choe U and his son Choe Hang provided support for the reconstruction efforts.
Each wood block measures 24 centimetres in height and 70 centimetres in length. The thickness ranges from 2.6 to 2.8 centimetres. Birch wood from southern Korean islands served as the primary material. Workers soaked the wood in sea water for three years before cutting it. They then boiled the pieces in salt water to remove starches. The blocks sat in the shade exposed to wind for another three years. A poisonous lacquer coated each finished block to repel insects. Metal frames prevented warping over centuries. Each block contains 644 characters when counting both sides. An estimated team of thirty men carved the entire collection despite earlier beliefs that a single artisan did all the work.
The original set of woodblocks was destroyed by fire during the Mongol invasions of Korea in 1232. This event occurred while Goryeo's capital moved to Ganghwa Island. Scattered parts of the first edition prints still remain today. King Gojong ordered the revision and re-creation of the Tripiitaka after the destruction. The second version is usually what people mean when they refer to the Tripitaka Koreana. In 1398, the collection moved to Haeinsa temple where it has remained housed in four buildings. A new depository built in the early 1970s damaged some blocks almost immediately. Those damaged blocks were subsequently moved back to their initial spots. The new building later became known as the Zen Center.
Haeinsa Temple houses the wooden printing blocks in South Gyeongsang Province. The architectural design protects the blocks from humidity without modern technology. Most blocks have remained in pristine condition for more than 750 years. The storage area prevents warping or deformation through natural ventilation methods. Each block weighs about three to four kilograms. Stacked together, the blocks would reach nearly as tall as Paektu Mountain. Lined up end-to-end, they would measure approximately 4 kilometers long. The total weight of all blocks reaches 280 tons. The temple complex includes four specific buildings dedicated to housing these sacred texts.
The Tripitaka was designated a National Treasure of South Korea in 1962. UNESCO inscribed the collection in its Memory of the World international register in 2007. This designation makes it one of only three woodblock collections registered globally by the organization. The UNESCO committee describes the work as one of the most important and complete corpus of Buddhist doctrinal texts in the world. It contains 1,496 titles divided into 6,568 books spanning 81,258 pages. A total of 52,330,152 Hanja characters fill the entire collection. Haeinsa Temple itself has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Scholars now debate the quality of current storage areas despite the historical preservation success.
Japanese Buddhists coveted the Korean version during the Edo period. Japan never managed to create its own woodblock Tripiitaka. They made constant requests to acquire the Korean edition since 1388. Forty-five complete printings were gifted to Japan since the Muromachi period. The modern Japanese Taisho Tripiitaka was based on the Korean edition. Some texts from the Korean version even appeared in the Chinese Zhonghua dazangjing. Contemporary scholars use the Korean version to research older Chinese and Khitan versions. Robert Buswell Jr. suggests renaming the Tripitaka Koreana to the Korean Buddhist Canon for accuracy. The current name is misleading because it includes much additional content beyond standard scriptures.
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Common questions
When did King Gojong of Goryeo order the carving of the Tripitaka Koreana?
King Gojong of Goryeo issued a royal decree in 1237 to carve new wooden printing blocks. The project took twelve years to complete, finishing around 1249.
What materials and processes were used to construct the woodblocks for the Tripitaka Koreana?
Workers used birch wood from southern Korean islands which they soaked in sea water for three years before cutting it. They boiled the pieces in salt water to remove starches and coated each finished block with poisonous lacquer to repel insects.
Where is the Tripitaka Koreana currently housed and how many buildings protect it?
Haeinsa Temple houses the wooden printing blocks in South Gyeongsang Province within four specific buildings dedicated to housing these sacred texts. A new depository built in the early 1970s damaged some blocks almost immediately so those damaged blocks were subsequently moved back to their initial spots.
How many characters and pages are contained in the Tripitaka Koreana collection?
A total of 52,330,152 Hanja characters fill the entire collection spanning 81,258 pages. It contains 1,496 titles divided into 6,568 books across all the blocks.
When was the Tripitaka Koreana designated as a UNESCO Memory of the World register entry?
UNESCO inscribed the collection in its Memory of the World international register on the 2nd of May 2007. This designation makes it one of only three woodblock collections registered globally by the organization.