Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is created by carving a wooden block to leave only some areas and lines at the original level; it is these that are inked and show in the print, in a relief printing process. Carving the blocks is skilled and laborious work, but a large number of impressions can then be printed.
The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra from Tang dynasty China, the world's earliest printed text containing a date of production, AD 868 (British Library)
A fragment of a dharani print in Sanskrit and Chinese, c. 650–670, Tang dynasty
Replica of The Great Dharani Sutra, the oldest printed text in Korea, c. 704-751
The Hyakumantō Darani, the oldest printed text in Japan, c. 770
The Diamond Sutra is a Mahāyāna (Buddhist) sutra from the genre of Prajñāpāramitā sutras. Translated into a variety of languages over a broad geographic range, the Diamond Sūtra is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras in East Asia, and it is particularly prominent within the Chan tradition, along with the Heart Sutra.
Frontispiece of the 'Diamond Sutra' written in Chinese, engraved and gilded on nephrite jade. China, 1732. Chester Beatty Library.
Statue of Kumārajīva in front of the Kizil Caves in Kuqa, Xinjiang province, China
A Nepalese sculpture of a vajra