We are now in the province of Gyeongju, which is in the eastern/southern part of Korea. It is a very mountainous region, and almost reminds me of the Green Mountains in VT or the foothills of the White Mountains in NH. We have visited several Buddhist temples, grottos, and a few museums. We have been eating pretty much exclusively Korean food, but today we did go to Pizza Hut. Blech!
On the way to the Haiensa Temple, and once we got there:
The Haiensa Temple is where the Tripitaka Koreana resides. The Tripitaka is the Buddhist canon of scriptures. They are written on 81,258 wooden printing blocks, that had been soaked in the river and dried by the wind. They have survived there since 1398.
(This picture was not taken with flash!)
I have learned that the Koreans used moveable type made from metal in 1377 to publish the Jikji, a Buddhist document of teachings. This was before Gutenberg publishes the Bible using moveable type in 1452. Very interesting! We never learn about this in the West... Both the East and the West figured out how to create moveable type and mass-produce texts! The Koreans deserve credit, too, just like Gutenberg got!
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