Artworks

Tripitaka Koreana

Artwork · Anonymous · 1232–1251 · woodblock · Haeinsa

The complete Buddhist canon carved on more than 80,000 woodblocks: after the Mongols destroyed the first edition, a new one was begun on Kanghwa island as a prayer for protection and completed in 1251. Magnolia wood soaked in salt water, boiled and dried, each block about 24 by 65 cm, capped with bronze and lacquered, with twenty-three lines on each side — thought the finest of some twenty East Asian versions. Kept in the storehouse of Haeinsa. 1 Portal 2000, pp. 78, 82, fig. 41. ↩ Literatur Portal 2000: Jane Portal, Korea: Art and Archaeology, London: British Museum Press 2000.