“Daebanyabaramildagyeong,” the 11.8-centimeter-wide and 30.6-centimeter-long foldable scripture written in silver letters is the 396th of the 600-volume Prajnaparamita sutra, the Research Institute of Buddhist Cultural Heritage said. It is estimated to date back to the 14th century.

Silsang Temple and the research institute had put the seated Budda statue through a 3D computer tomography (CT) scan and found it contained the sutra, written with silver ink on paper made of mulberry tree, hidden in the statue’s head.

The institute found the statue contained something in its head through beaming X-ray in 2005, but could not identify it.

“It is the first time to use the 3D-CT in our research on a Buddha statue. Through the research, we traced that the Silsang Temple Buddha contains a folded paper and letters written with a metallic material. Because we were deeply concerned about its condition, we decided to retrieve it for better preservation,” said Lim Seok-kyu, a researcher of the institute.

The scripture records, “it is made by the request of Lee Jang-gye and his wife Lee” at the edge of the cover.

“They seem to have made it to honor their ancestors and to ward off bad luck,” said Song Il-gi, a library science professor at Chung-Ang University. “Buddhist scripture written in silver letters is very rare. There are only four such scriptures found in Korea.” Song claimed the script found this time is as valuable as a 14th-century sutra found inside the Vairocana Buddha of Girim Temple in Gyeongju, designated as national treasure No. 959.

The research team also did the 3D-CT scan on Silsang Temple’s standing Buddha statue and found it along with the seated Buddha statue were created in the same style and make the Buddha Triad of the 15th century. The remaining Buddha statue of the Triad is kept at Dong-A University in Busan.

Source: m.koreatimes.co.kr