Digital Temple
Web-based educational platform and VR experience of Kaihua Monastery
Project Video
Project Link
Overview
Nestled into the western foothills of the Taihang range in China's Shanxi province, Kaihua Monastery (c.1073/1092–96) was once a large complex of structures. However, today only one building still stands: its main Buddha hall, The Treasure Hall of the Great Hero [Mahāvīra] (in Chinese, Daxiongbaodian). With an interior rich in pictorial iconographies, this Buddha Hall's visual program transformed it into a virtual theater by embedding both temporal and spatial transformations within its representations. By unpacking the artistic and religious underpinnings of the temple's visual program, CAMLab stages a virtual experience of the temple's transformative process, through which an array of semiotic and sensorial media reconstruct—and facilitate—the transcendence of embodiment.
Web Platform Features
The educational platform surfaces the temple's iconographies through a set of interactive tools — spatial annotations with narrative guidance, a high-resolution mural archive, image-text matching learning games, and an optical wayfinding system.
Landscape & Temporal Structure
Real-time 3D reconstructions of the temple's landscape setting and the temporal layering of its visual program.
Museum Exhibitions & VR Experience
Alongside the digital platform, the team curated physical exhibitions at Harvard's CAMLab Cave and museums across Asia, featuring art installations, immersive theater, and academic events. A complementary VR experience lets users explore the temple in 360° on tablets or through VR headsets.
I produced the 360° VR walkthrough — modeling, VFX, lighting, and real-time optimization for headset playback. (The VR trailer video is embedded above in the Project Video section.)
Impact
- 1.1M+ views
- 1,535+ likes on Instagram
- 4+ new institutional collaborations (research institutes, art organizations)
- 90% of surveyed participants gained new knowledge about Buddhist art
- Exhibited at Harvard CAMLab Cave and museums across Asia
My Role
- 3D modeling & layout of the Kaihua Monastery hall and iconographies
- VFX and shader work for mural transformations
- VR technical art: asset optimization, lighting, and runtime tuning for headset + tablet playback
- Tools: Houdini, Unreal Engine 5, Unity, Blender, Python, WebGL
References
Gallery
