Woodblock printing in Korea

The world's oldest surviving woodblock print is thought to be The Great Dharani Sutra, a small Buddhist scroll discovered at Bulguksa Temple in Gyeongju, South Korea, in 1966.

[3] It was made by completely engraving all of the sutra texts, with the letters facing upward, and then placing them on paper and rubbing them with something like a horsehair to create a scroll.

[5] In 1232, during the Second Mongol Invasion of Korea, a 6,000-volume wooden board of the Tripitaka Koreana, carved in the early 12th century, was burned at the Buinsa in Daegu by nomadic Mongolians.

For the tragic cultural and religious loss, the Goryeo people implemented the 15-year project (1236–1251) to carve the Tripitaka Koreana, a set of over 81,000 wooden printing plates.

The woodblocks were cut down from Prunus sargentii, pear trees, soaked in seawater for 1–2 years, boiled in salt water, and then dried.