Cheongju Early Printing Museum

In 1377 a Buddhist book printed at a temple in Cheongju quietly changed the history of printing. It was Jikji, the oldest surviving book in the world printed with movable metal type. The Cheongju Early Printing Museum stands right next to the site of Heungdeoksa, the temple where it was printed, and tells the story of Goryeo-era metal type and of Korean printing as a whole.

A museum on the temple site

For a long time nobody knew where Heungdeoksa had stood. Excavations in 1985, during a housing development in Uncheon-dong, turned up a fragment of a bronze gong inscribed with the name "Heungdeoksa", which identified the site as the temple where Jikji was printed. The temple seems to have been founded by the 9th century at the latest and survived until late Goryeo. The site was designated a national Historic Site in 1986.

The excavation uncovered the foundations of the main hall, lecture hall and corridors, along with ridge-end tiles, roof-tile fragments, vessels and bronze objects. A roof tile inscribed with a Tang-dynasty era date (Dazhong 3) helped push the temple's history back to the 9th century.

The museum opened here on 17 March 1992. It was first called the Heungdeoksa Site Management Office and took its current name in 1993.

What is Jikji

Jikji is a collection of key passages from the teachings of the Buddha and eminent Seon (Zen) monks, compiled by the Goryeo monk Baegun. It was printed with metal type at Heungdeoksa in 1377, 78 years before Gutenberg's 42-line Bible. Of its two volumes, only the second volume of the metal-type edition survives, and it is held by the National Library of France in Paris. Jikji was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2001.

What to see

• Jikji and metal type: The core exhibition explains Jikji, Goryeo metal-type printing and the Heungdeoksa finds, showing how type was cast and printed.
• Korean printing culture: Displays follow traditional printing from Goryeo woodblocks to the late 19th century and continue into modern printing.
• Digital immersive hall: Augmented reality, motion-sensing and type-based media art let you play with writing and printing, which works well with children.
• Heungdeoksa site: Next to the museum you can walk around the temple site with its reconstructed main hall, a stone pagoda and excavated building foundations. Do not skip it.

Tripto tips

• Opening hours: 09:00–18:00, free admission. Closed every Monday and on 1 January; hours differ on the Seollal and Chuseok holidays, so check ahead.
• Hands-on printing: The modern printing hall runs bookable sessions such as lead-type printing, letterpress postcards and woodblock printing (+82 43-201-4288).
• Time needed: Allow 1–2 hours for the exhibitions and the temple site.
• Good to know: The Jikji on display here is not the original, which is in Paris, so set your expectations accordingly.
• When to go: Around 4 September, the date Jikji joined the Memory of the World Register, Cheongju holds the Jikji Culture Festival, with the museum as a main venue.
• Parking: The museum and the temple site sit side by side, so you can park once and walk between them. The address is 713 Jikji-daero, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju.