Janggyeongpanjeon Depositories of Haeinsa Temple, Hapcheon

Haeinsa, halfway up Gayasan, was founded in 802, in thanks — the story goes — for the Buddha's power having cured a queen's illness. It is one of the three great temples of Korea, and because it holds the Tripitaka woodblocks it is called the temple of the Dharma jewel. Janggyeongpanjeon, which holds the eighty thousand-odd blocks cut in the Goryeo period, is the oldest building left at Haeinsa. Its first date is not known exactly, but it was substantially rebuilt in 1457 and again in 1488 by the monk Hakjo with the support of the royal house, when it is recorded as having been named Boandang. Deep in the mountains, it came through the Japanese invasions undamaged and keeps its old form; it was repaired in 1622 and 1624. Two buildings, each fifteen bays by two, stand parallel — Sudarajang to the south, Beopbojeon to the north — with small stores of two bays by one to the west and east, so that the whole makes a long rectangle. Nothing is decorated: the building is there to do a job. For ventilation the windows differ in size between the south and north walls, and every bay has one. The earth floor inside was laid with charcoal, lime and salt in turn, mixed with sand, to regulate the humidity. That the blocks have survived as they have is credited to this reasoned use of what the site itself offered. A fifteenth-century building, it is the only structure in the world made to hold a Tripitaka, and it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in December 1995.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Hapcheon, Gyeongnam

Designation

National Treasure · 국보