The Mogao Grottoes, a 1,600-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site in northwest China’s Gansu province, is administered by China’s Dunhuang Academy. The academy has developed a complete system that integrates digital cultural heritage collection, processing, storage, and display technologies. This approach has resulted in a rich base of cultural resources, which has significantly promoted the innovative transformation and development of fine traditional Chinese culture.
To provide visitors with a more immersive experience, the academy offers high-definition panoramic tours of 30 caves on digital platforms. It has also launched a mini-program on the social media platform WeChat that has seen over 200 million online interactions. Moreover, the academy has introduced an official virtual cartoon figure named Jiayao, inspired by a half-woman, half-bird creature in millennia-old murals.
The Dunhuang Academy has incorporated augmented reality technology into its operations, employing a map app for navigation in the caves. When visitors’ phone cameras are pointed in certain directions or at specific objects, the app overlays information and virtual Buddhist characters on the screen. Visitors can take pictures with these characters, and the images can be sent to their phones through WeChat. Zhang Ruizhi, a tour guide at the academy, confirms this feature.
According to Yu Tianxiu, the director of the academy’s cultural relics digitalization institute, the massive digital resources of the Mogao Grottoes can create a digital twin of the World Heritage site when assisted by spatial orientation and online-merge-offline technologies. This development marks a new attempt that enables visitors to watch the grottoes outside of them.
It’s a challenging process to move cultural relics from the Mogao Grottoes to the digital world. Nonetheless, China’s Dunhuang Academy has successfully developed an integrated system that has significantly promoted the innovative transformation and development of fine traditional Chinese culture. The academy’s implementation of augmented reality technology has enabled visitors to interact with the grottoes in a unique way, and it continues to explore new technologies that will make cultural heritage more accessible.
According to Yu Tianxiu, the director of the cultural relics digitalization institute at China’s Dunhuang Academy, well-designed plans are essential for 3D image collection, taking into account the sizes, shapes, and preservation of the caves, as well as the difficulty of 3D scanning. Customized tracks and filming vehicles are then utilized to take thousands of images that are put together to create a complete piece.
One of the notable results of the Digital Dunhuang project is the “Incredible Buddhist Grottoes,” the world’s first ultra-high-definition digital full dome film featuring grotto art. The 20-minute 8K video showcases the seven caves of the highest artistic value at the Mogao Grottoes in detail. It provides a fully immersive experience, with every mural or painted sculpture on the screen exactly identical to what’s at the Mogao Grottoes.
Another film, “Thousand-year Mogao,” has also been produced by the Dunhuang Academy. According to the academy’s honorary president, Fan Jinshi, after watching these two films, visitors are more likely to have a better experience when visiting the caves.
Today, online exhibitions present 1:1 digital replicas of the caves at the Mogao Grottoes, bringing faraway thousand-year-old treasures right in front of people’s eyes. Visitors can explore the caves with a virtual reality headset, browse ultra-high-definition pictures of the World Heritage Site with just a few clicks on a mouse, or enjoy a 720-degree panoramic tour of the 30 caves at the Mogao Grottoes on digital platforms.
With these innovative approaches, the Dunhuang Academy has made the Mogao Grottoes more accessible than ever before. The use of virtual reality, high-definition images, and panoramic tours has helped bring the grottoes to life for visitors around the world. The academy’s commitment to digitalizing cultural relics has not only preserved them for future generations but has also made them more accessible to a global audience.
The Dunhuang Academy in China’s Gansu province has made great strides in digitalizing the Mogao Grottoes, a 1,600-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site. The academy’s president, Su Bomin, stated that it has established a digital record for each cave, mural, and painted sculpture, with the aim of preserving this information permanently.
By the end of 2022, the academy had collected digital information on almost 300 caves, processed images for around 180 of them, and rebuilt 45 painted sculptures, 140 caves, and seven heritage sites in the digital world. Additionally, it had created panoramic shows for 162 caves and digitized over 50,000 photographic films.
Through these efforts, the academy has made it possible for visitors to explore the Mogao Grottoes virtually, offering experiences such as wearing a virtual reality headset or browsing ultra high-definition pictures with just a few clicks. The academy’s ongoing work in digitalizing the site is an important step in preserving the cultural heritage of the Mogao Grottoes for future generations.
The Dunhuang Academy has created a wealth of digital cultural heritage resources by building a comprehensive system that integrates digital technologies for the collection, processing, storage, and display of cultural heritage. This has significantly contributed to the innovative transformation and development of traditional Chinese culture. For example, the academy offers high-definition panoramic tours of 30 caves on digital platforms, and its mini program on WeChat has seen over 200 million online interactions.
In addition, the Dunhuang Academy has launched an official virtual cartoon figure named Jiayao, based on a half-woman, half-bird creature on millennia-old murals. The figure has dynamic facial expressions, and her hair, clothes, and accessories can even sway with the “wind.” Jiayao can guide online tourists, host livestream sessions, and perform the Dunhuang dance, introducing the culture of Dunhuang to Chinese and foreign visitors.
The academy employs a map app that uses augmented reality for navigation in the caves, and when visitors’ phone cameras are pointed to certain directions or at certain objects in the caves, the app overlays information and sometimes virtual Buddhist characters on the screen. Visitors can pose for pictures with these virtual characters and have the pictures sent to their phones through WeChat.
Furthermore, the massive digital resources of the Mogao Grottoes, when assisted by spatial orientation and online-merge-offline technologies, can create a digital twin of the World Heritage site, enabling visitors to watch the grottoes outside of them. Yu Tianxiu, director of the academy’s cultural relics digitalization institute, noted that this marks a new attempt in digital preservation and promotion of cultural heritage.
Lastly, the academy has compiled all the digital files of caves, murals, and painted sculptures according to specifications, creating more possibilities for academic research and further utilization. The world’s first blockchain-based open sharing platform for cultural heritage, e-Dunhuang, was launched at the end of 2022. The platform provides access to over 6,500 high-definition digital files from grotto sites, including the Mogao Grottoes and literature at the Dunhuang Library Cave, offering fantastic contents for scholars, cultural enthusiasts, and artists.