In an ongoing online project to change the English name of the Tripitaka Koreana, two suggested names ― Goryeo Daejanggyeong and Palman Daejanggyeong ― are in a close race.

The Organizing Committee of the 2013 Tripitaka Koreana Festival launched an online appeal to rename the UNESCO Memory of the World Register as pronounced in Korean on Oct. 14 and is gathering comments on the new names until Dec. 31. 

The appeal asks visitors to choose or comment on one of two suggested English names, Goryeo Daejanggyeong and Palman Daejanggyeong.

As of Oct. 31, 908 visitors made comments. Of them, 116 chose Goryeo Daejanggyeong and 107 Palman Daejanggyeong. Fifty-four people suggested Goryeo Palman Daejanggyeong.

If the appeal collects a certain number of opinions, the festival organizers ― the office of South Gyeongsang Province and Haeinsa Temple, which stores the heritage ― will positively consider making an official request for the change of its English name.

The goal of the appeal is to collect opinions from 8,125 or more visitors.

The move to change the English name of Tripitaka Koreana as pronounced by Koreans was sparked by professor Robert Buswell of the University of California, Los Angeles, who asserted that the English name of the cultural heritage be changed to simply “Goryeo Daejanggyeong.”

“The ‘Goryeo Daejanggyeong’ is much bigger and larger than the Indian model of Tripitaka. It doesn’t really give a sense of what the Goryeo Canon is,” he said in a recent symposium in Seoul.

Haeinsa Temple calls it Goryeo Daejanggyeong, while elementary school textbooks name it Palman Daejanggyeong.

Tripitaka Koreana is a Korean collection of Tripitaka or Buddhist scriptures carved onto 81,258 wooden printing blocks in the 13th century. It is the world’s most comprehensive and oldest version of Buddhist canon with no known errors in the 52,382,960 carved characters. Each wooden block measures 7 centimeters wide, 24 cm long and 2.6 to 4 cm thick.

Tripitaka is the Sanskrit word for “three baskets,” meaning the three main categories of texts that make up the Buddhist canon.

The 2013 Tripitaka Koreana Festival is being held in South Gyeongsang Province, home to Haeinsa Temple, from Sept. 27-Nov. 10.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)