Buddhism · Texts & transmission
Korea carves an extensive Buddhist canon
1237–1248 CE
Korean patrons and craftspeople produced tens of thousands of woodblocks containing Buddhist texts during the Mongol invasions. The collection later received purpose-designed storage at Haeinsa. Its survival preserves both a major textual undertaking and the material skills required to conserve printing blocks.
Why it matters
Producing and protecting a canon required coordinated labor and resources; its history combines religious aspiration, warfare, craftsmanship, printing, and long-term institutional care.
About the date
Follows UNESCO’s stated carving range; the Haeinsa storage buildings are later, fifteenth-century structures.
Haeinsa
Later preservation site of the blocks, not an asserted place of their carving.
site orientation
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