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The Tripitaka Koreana woodblocks at Haeinsa in South Gyeongsang Province. (Cultural Heritage Administration) |
The Tripitaka Koreana, the most complete collection of Buddhist texts, laws and treaties carved on 81,258 wooden printing blocks in the 13th century, will be digitized for public viewing by 2027, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration.
The agency will make prints of the woodblocks housed at Haeinsa, a temple in South Gyeongsang Province, on hanji, Korea’s traditional mulberry paper, and scan the pages. The public will be able to access the digital files as early as 2027.
“The project began last year, and for this year, we will be going over studying the woodblocks and thinking of ways to best preserve them,” a CHA official handling the project said of the plans underway on Tuesday.
“Starting next year, we will be coming up with how we can go about presenting our digitization efforts, the way we can create the best user-friendly conditions for the heritage,” the official added, referring to the UNESCO-listed woodblocks and Haeinsa, a Buddhist temple established in 802.
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The Tripitaka Koreana woodblocks at Haeinsa in South Gyeongsang Province. (Cultural Heritage Administration) |
The temple, which took up the project last year as the lead manager, will enlist experts on managing cultural heritage, including those from the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage -- the school run by CHA
Buddhist scholars around the world acknowledge the outstanding quality of the woodblocks of Buddhist scriptures. The UNESCO Heritage Memory of the World also offers a glimpse into the development of Korean printing techniques.
