Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

� A monk holds a block of the Tripitaka Koreana.
Haeinsa Monastery �
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.
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).
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