Avatamsaka Sutra (The Flower Garland Sutra), Zhenyuan Version, Volume 24

The Avatamsaka Sutra (Daebanggwangbul hwaeomgyeong), often abbreviated as Hwaeomgyeong, holds as its central teaching that the Buddha and sentient beings are not two but one. As the foundational scripture of the Hwaeom school, together with the Lotus Sutra it exerted an important influence on the establishment of Korean Buddhist thought. This volume is Chapter 24 of the forty-fascicle Zhenyuan version of the Avatamsaka Sutra, translated into Chinese by the Tang-dynasty monk Prajña, and comprises the Chapter on the Vows of Samantabhadra separated out from the vast body of the sutra. Its content is a sermon by the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra setting out ten methods for entering the world of enlightenment. It is a woodblock print on mulberry paper, in an accordion-fold format that opens like a screen, measuring 30.5 cm in height and 12.3 cm in width. The dark indigo cover is decorated with a floral pattern in gold and silver, with the title written in gold at its centre, and beneath it the character "貞" (jeong), marking it as the Zhenyuan version, also written in gold. This volume was printed from the Goryeo woodblocks of Haeinsa Temple (a National Treasure); the blocks are thought to have been carved in the twelfth to thirteenth century, while, judging from the cover decoration, paper quality and print condition, the printing itself is estimated to date from around the fourteenth century.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeoju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Treasure · 보물