Kingdom of Goryeo

Second Tripitaka Koreana
Tripitaka Koreana ©Image Attribution forthcoming. Image belongs to the respective owner(s).
1251 Jan 1

Second Tripitaka Koreana

Haeinsa, South Korea
The Tripiṭaka Koreana is a Korean collection of the Tripiṭaka (Buddhist scriptures, and the Sanskrit word for "three baskets"), carved onto 81,258 wooden printing blocks in the 13th century. It is the world's most comprehensive and oldest intact version of Buddhist canon in Hanja script, with no known errors or errata in the 52,330,152 characters which are organized in over 1496 titles and 6568 volumes. Each wood block measures 24 centimeters in height and 70 centimeters in length. The thickness of the blocks ranges from 2.6 to 4 centimeters and each weighs about three to four kilograms. The woodblocks would be almost as tall as Mount Baekdu at 2.74 km if stacked and would measure 60 km long if lined up, and weigh 280 tons in total. The woodblocks are in pristine condition without warping or deformation despite being created more than 750 years ago.

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