The Tripitaka Koreana
81,000 woodblocks carved as a prayer against the Mongols
As the Mongols ravaged Goryeo, the court, sheltering on Ganghwa Island, commissioned a new edition of the Buddhist canon in hope of the Buddha's protection. Between 1237 and 1248 craftsmen carved more than 81,000 wooden printing blocks, almost without a single error. Kept at Haeinsa Temple since 1398, they are the most complete surviving Buddhist canon in Classical Chinese.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 13th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1237–1240 Mongol invasion of Rus' — 14 years earlier
- 1240 Batu Khan takes Kiev — 11 years earlier
- c. 1242 The Golden Horde is founded — 9 years earlier
Middle East
- 1258 Mongol sack of Baghdad — 7 years later
Oceania
- c. 1250 The moai of Easter Island — 1 year earlier
Alive at the time
- Kublai Khan (aged 36)
- Alexander Nevsky (aged 30)
- Rumi (aged 44)
- Saint Louis (Louis IX) (aged 37)
- Sundiata Keita (aged 34)
- Rudolf I (aged 33)
- Thomas Aquinas (aged 26)
- Edward I Longshanks (aged 12)
- Henry III (aged 44)
- Conrad IV (aged 23)