Tripitaka Koreana

Haeinsa Temple, South Korea
Author: Theda Grimoire (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

The Haeinsa Temple is the head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. It is located in the Gaya Mountains in South Gyeongsang Province in South Korea. The temple is one of the most important Buddhist temples in the country. It is regarded as one of the Three Jewel Temples of Korea.

Within the Haeinsa Temple are storage halls called the janggyeong Panjeon Complex. This is where the woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana are kept. The Tripitaka Koreana, or Palman Daejanggyeong, are the Korean collections of Buddhist scriptures cared onto 81,340 wooden blocks during the 13th century. They are the world's most comprehensive and oldest intact copy of the Buddhist scriptures in Chinese script without any errors or errata in the 52,382,960 characters organised into 1,496 titles and 6,568 volumes.

The Tripitaka Koreana is the 32nd national treasure of Korea, where as the Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon, the depository of the Tripitaka, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site during the 19th session of the World Heritage Committee in Berlin, Germany, on 4-9 December, 1995.

Pavilion at Haeinsa Temple, South Korea
Author: Steve Ruff (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

Janggyeong Panjeon, Haeinsa Temple
Author: Lauren Heckler (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)