Buddhist scriptures in South Korea have been kept in the form of transcription for a long time. This implies the need to review the transcriptions in the Buddhist scripture translation. The purpose of the research is to look at the cause and background of transcription in the Buddhist scriptures. The sample of the research targets the Chinese-Korean translation of the Prajnaparamita Hrdaya Sutra. A literature review and a descriptive approach are applied to analyze the sample. The findings of analysis indicate that the cause of transcription in the Buddhist scripture can be found at Xuanzang’s Five Types of Untranslatables, and the other cause is that transcription is used to overcome the differences between the two languages or the gaps between the two cultures. In addition, another is that the transcription is intentionally used to increase the value as a religious text and to prevent the distortion or loss of the meanings in the original. The research suggests transcription can be a method to preserve meanings of the original in the translation of Buddhist scriptures. Nonetheless, it is difficult to find the research on whether the transcribed forms in the Buddhist scriptures follow transliteration or transcription. Therefore, further research needs to look at the transcriptions in the Sanskrit-Chinese, Pali-Chinese, and Chinese-Korean translation. The reason is that various forms of transcribed words are found in the translation of Buddhist scriptures.

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