Carving the First Tripitaka

Hoping the Buddha’s power would repel the Khitans, Goryeo began carving the Buddhist canon under Hyeonjong and finished it decades later; the blocks burned in the Mongol invasion of 1232.

The woodblocks, kept at Buinsa on Mount Palgong near Daegu, were destroyed by the Mongols in 1232; some printed copies survive in Korea and Japan. Uicheon later compiled commentaries on the canon as the Gyojang, and the canon was re-carved during the Mongol wars as the Tripitaka Koreana.