Haeinsa to re-carve Tripitaka Koreana for first time in 800 years in 5-to-10-year project

Haeinsa temple announced Thursday that it will hold a ceremonial rite on Oct. 29 at 2 p.m. at the Beopgyetap courtyard in Hapcheon-gun, South Gyeongsang Province, to mark the start of a new carving of the Tripitaka Koreana — the 81,352-woodblock national treasure and UNESCO Memory of the World heritage — in a ceremony called the "Haeinsa Janggyeongdogam Daejanggyeong Pangak Gobulshik."

The project, which involves carving an entirely new set of the Tripitaka Koreana, was conceived to carry the spirit and vow behind the original creation some 800 years ago into the present day.

Beginning Oct. 29, the long-term undertaking is expected to take five to ten years to complete.

About 100 monks and graduates from the Pangak School — a carving institute established under the Haeinsa Janggyeongdogam, the temple's dedicated body overseeing the transmission of traditional woodblock carving and the creation of the new canon — will take part in the work.

The ceremony, themed "Re-carving the Tripitaka, Toward Humanity," marks the formal start of the endeavor, announcing the undertaking before the Buddha and proclaiming it to the world.

Attendees will include Haeinsa's head monk Daewon Daejongsa, Abbot Hyeil, senior monks of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, officials from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the National Assembly, South Gyeongsang Province and Hapcheon-gun, national heritage experts, and students of the Pangak School.

Ahead of the main ceremony, a "10,000-day prayer" will be held at 12:30 p.m. in the courtyard in front of Beopbojeon hall to pray for the project's successful completion, followed at 3 p.m. by a live demonstration of the traditional woodblock carving process.

Haeinsa said the project is not intended to simply replicate or replace the existing Tripitaka Koreana woodblocks.

Rather, it aims to revive the spirit of the Goryeo people who, facing the existential crisis of the Mongol invasions 800 years ago, carved the Buddha's teachings onto wooden blocks as a prayer for the peace of their nation and people — and to extend that spirit as a value for overcoming the shared crises of the 21st century, including war, climate change and the breakdown of community.

The project also seeks to highlight the meditative value of carving each character by hand at a time when AI and digital technology are advancing rapidly.

While efforts to digitize the Tripitaka and translate it into multiple languages will proceed in parallel, the temple said the human act of examining the grain of the wood and carving each character with care, repentance and aspiration is something no machine can replicate.

To that end, the Pangak School is focusing not only on producing woodblocks but on cultivating people who can pass on traditional techniques and the spirit of practice to the next generation.

Haeinsa said it plans to keep the Tripitaka Koreana alive as a "living civilizational heritage" that speaks to future generations — through carving education and transmission, academic research and the development of a digital archive.

"If our ancestors 800 years ago carved the Tripitaka for the sake of their nation, today we seek to re-carve the human heart — for people and all living beings, for peace and the future of humanity, and for the minds of those who will live through the next thousand years," Abbot Hyeil said.