One of the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book - Diamond Sūtra/Mahāyāna (Buddhist) sūtra [Sanskrit title of this text is the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra]

The Diamond Sūtra is a Mahāyāna (Buddhist) sūtra from the Prajñāpāramitā, or "Perfection of Wisdom" genre, and emphasizes the practice of non-abiding and non-attachment. The full Sanskrit title of this text is the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.

There is a wood block printed copy in the British Library which, although not the earliest example of block printing, is the earliest example which bears an actual date. The book displays a great maturity of design and layout and speaks of a considerable ancestry for woodblock printing.

The extant copy has the form of a scroll, about 5 meters (16 ft) long. The archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein purchased it in 1907 in the walled-up Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in northwest China from a monk guarding the caves - known as the "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas".

This is approximately 587 years before the Gutenberg Bible was first printed.

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Gyaat:One of the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book

  

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