The oldest printed text in the world might never have been meant to be read. The Hyakumantō Darani was a monumental Buddhist project in 8th century Japan where one million printed prayers were commissioned, rolled up, put inside little wooden boxes and sent around the country. This was 600 years before Gutenberg’s printing press. But unlike other early printed texts, the Hyakumantō Darani were not printed to share information to the masses – instead it was a devotional and spiritual project, magnified by its colossal scale of production. The only Hyakumantō Darani in an Australian public collection is on display at State Library Victoria as part of their World of the Book exhibition.
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