For this blog post, I explored the Virtual Angkor educational website. This website simulated 24 hours at medieval Angkor Wat, recreating a virtual rendition of what life at the Hindu temple Angkor Wat in Cambodia would have looked like. This project was a collaborative effort between historians, archaeologists, and virtual history specialists to bring a 3D version of Angkor Wat to classrooms in order to study trade, diplomacy, climate, and power in one of the most impressive religious complexes of the medieval world.
In order to generate this website, the creators had to compile many very different sources and find a way to unify them under a common vision. The main source they relied on for historical context was Zhou Daguan’s A Record of Cambodia. This Chinese diplomat writes about his experience in Khmer society in 1296, giving the creators of Virtual Angkor Wat important contextual information of how Angkor Wat operated at the time. In addition to A Record of Cambodia, several other archeological and textual sources were used. The creators also used the University of Sydney’s Angkor Research Program and Google Maps Street View to aid in the creation of their site. They then proceeded to build their simulation of Angkor Wat from the ground up.
The creators processed the information they received from their sources in several different ways to produce a diversified, interactive site. The project began as an exercise in 3D modelling in which a virtual world was created by hand by site builders. Then they used animation to create a moving replica of the world. Simulations followed these animations of people throughout their day to day business over the course of 24 hours. The creators looked at archeological maps from the Greater Angkor Project and the Khmer Archaeology Lidar Consortium in order to recreate the agriculture, temple complex, infrastructure, and dwellings present in Angkor Wat. 3D scanning was used to scan artifacts in addition to the ‘handmade’ models in the virtual world, where artifacts from Angkor Wat were scanned in order to integrate them into the simulation.
The presentation of Virtual Angkor is an online simulation interspersed with educational modules. The site include panoramic 360 degree videos from 13 scenes around the complex containing complicated animations of the people, the natural world, and animals. In addition to being available on any computer via the website platform, this virtual world is also available for virtual reality headsets like Google Daydream.
This project is aimed at students in educational environments looking to learn more about medieval life in Angkor Wat, whether that be its trade, climate, or day to day activities. The site is in conversation with both history and archeology, working closely with these two academic disciplines to create a digital product that benefits all of the involved disciplines. This site does not intend to make an argument. Instead, it is intended to provide educational materials to students interested in learning more about Angkor Wat.
