Buddhist scriptures in South Korea were handed down in the form of transcription from China. Previous studies have examined the transcriptions in the Buddhist scriptures from religious, linguistic, and philosophical perspectives, but have overlooked their types and processes. The purpose of the research is to examine the types and characteristics of transcription in Buddhist scriptures. The sample of the research targeted the Chinese-Korean translation of words, phrases, and sentences in the Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra. A literature review and descriptive approach were applied to analyse the sample. The findings indicate that the types of transcription were classified as the four categories: Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean transcriptions, and phonetic variants. In the Sanskrit transcription, Korean directly transcribed Sanskrit. In the Chinese transcription, Korean transcribed Chinese pronunciation in the source language, because Korea borrowed Chinese characters from ancient times. The Korean transcription reflected its own pronunciation by domestication of translation. Finally, the phonetic variants showed alterations over time. These findings represent that Buddhist scriptures preferred transcription over meaning-based translations, because of prescribed translation norms: Five Losses of the Original Form and Three Untranslatables, and Five Types of Untranslatables. This research suggests that Buddhist scriptures choose transcription to preserve the original content without loss of meaning.

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