← Explore on the interactive map

Tripitaka Koreana Printing Project

Type Object Region Korean Peninsula Time 1010–1251

A national project in which the Goryeo dynasty twice organized the woodblock printing of the Buddhist canon in the 11th–13th centuries.

Timeline

  1. 1010–1087Gaeseong · GaeseongGoryeo King Hyonjong ordered the carving of the Tripitaka to pray for blessings for the royal house; the first edition took over seventy years to complete, gathering the Buddhist canonical versions of East Asia at the time on an unprecedented scale.
  2. 1232Ganghwa Island · Ganghwa CountyMongol forces invaded Goryeo, and the first-edition blocks stored on Ganghwa Island were burned in the fighting, prompting the royal court to resolve to carve them anew to accumulate merit and pray for national peace.
  3. 1236–1251Haeinsa · Hapcheon CountyGoryeo King Gojong ordered the Tripitaka recarved at Haeinsa; over sixteen years, 81,258 blocks were cut, lacquered for protection and finely engraved, hailed as the most complete medieval wooden canon treasury of East Asia.
  4. 1251Janggyeong Panjeon, Haeinsa · Hapcheon CountyThe blocks have been preserved intact at Haeinsa's Janggyeong Panjeon for over seven hundred years; they were designated a Korean National Treasure in 1973 and inscribed as part of Haeinsa Janggyeong Panjeon on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007.

Sources