A New Model of Angkor Wat: Simulated Reconstruction as a Methodology for Analysis and Public Engagement

ABSTRACT

Since its construction in the twelfth century, Angkor Wat has endured as a pre-eminent regional, spiritual, and artistic symbol of mainland Southeast Asia. The temple has been a perennial focus of art-historical research, with scholars typically considering it as an architectural and artistic archetype and as a manifestation of a belief system. The disciplines of art history and digital visualisation, when previously brought together in relation to the temple, have presented the temple as an isolated artefact. Such static interpretations deserve to be discarded, as augmented digital visualisations that are now available offer scholars the opportunity to situate the temple within its historical landscape with goal seeking animated inhabitants (termed ‘agents’), displays of religious practice, ephemeral architecture, and vegetation. Drawing upon recent archaeological findings, a team of researchers from Monash University has created a dynamic simulation of twelfth-century Angkor Wat where plural reconstructions can be explored jointly by digital practitioners and Southeast Asia specialists. In contrast to broad archaeological studies that plot change over decades or centuries, this simulation re-creates just 24 hours; a day in the life of medieval Angkor Wat.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Monash Faculty of Information Technology's SensiLab for its technical support. We are grateful to David Chandler, Olivier Cunin, Damian Evans, Roland Fletcher, Ian Mabbett and Julio Jeldres for their advice and suggestions throughout the project. We are indebted to Jon Beck at ‘Scan the World/MyMiniFactory’ for permission to include a 3D scan of an Angkorian guardian lion from the Guimet Museum, and to John Garzoli for his 2011 field recordings of traditional music ensembles from Ubon Ratchathani.

Notes

1. Tom Chandler and Martin Polkinghorne, ‘Through the Visualisation Lens: Temple Models and Simulated Context in a Virtual Angkor’, in Old Myths and New Approaches: Interpreting Ancient Religious Sites in Southeast Asia (Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, 2012), 218–36.

2. Guy Nafilyan and Alex Turletti, Angkor Vat: Description Graphique du Temple (Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême–Orient, 1969); Vittorio Roveda, Khmer Mythology (Bangkok: River Books, 1997); Vittorio Roveda and Jaro Poncar, Sacred Angkor: The Carved Reliefs of Angkor Wat (Bangkok: River Books, 2002).

3. LiDAR is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser and then measures the reflected pulses with a sensor.

4. Damian H. Evans et al., ‘Uncovering Archaeological Landscapes at Angkor Using Lidar’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 31 (2013): 12595–600.

5. Roland Fletcher, Damian Evans, Christophe Pottier, and Chhay Rachna, ‘Angkor Wat: An Introduction,’ Antiquity 89, no. 348 (2015): 1410.

6. Fletcher et al., ‘Angkor Wat’, 1393.

7. Saveros Pou and Marie-Alexandrine Martin, ‘Les Noms de Plantes Dans l’Épigraphie Vieux-Khmère’, Asie du Sud-Est et Monde Insulindien 12, nos 1–2 (1981): 3–73; Dan Penny et al., ‘Vegetation and Land-Use at Angkor, Cambodia: A Dated Pollen Sequence from the Bakong Temple Moat,’ Antiquity 80, no. 309 (2006): 599–614.

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9. The Seville Charter proposes principles and criteria for scientific transparency in virtual archaeology projects.

10. Victor Manuel Lopez-Menchero and Alfredo Grande, ‘The Principles of the Seville Charter’, CIPA Symposium Proceedings (2011): 2–6.

11. Tom Chandler and Martin Polkinghorne, ‘Visualising Angkor: 3D images and Animations Selected from Monash University's Visualising Angkor Project 2007–2014’, Google Arts and Culture, https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/visualising-angkor/AR6A-vMq.

12. Nafilyan and Turletti, Angkor Vat.

13. Vittorio Roveda and Jaro Poncar, Sacred Angkor: The Carved Reliefs of Angkor Wat (Bangkok: River Books, 2002); Thomas S. Maxwell, Of Gods, Kings, and Men: The Reliefs of Angkor Wat (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2006).

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18. Brotherson details the discovery of multiple breaches or ‘gateway gaps’ in the north and south walls of the complex that were subsequently filled with masonry. The use of recycled Bayon-period stonework depicting a Buddha image in the masonry blocking the gaps dates the filling prior to the late thirteenth century. Our reconstruction includes six breaches – two in each of the north, east and south walls – with a view to visualising the possibility that they were also used as thoroughfares, like the gates, in medieval times. We were unable to complete this scenario in the simulation discussed here. David Brotherson, ‘The fortification of Angkor Wat’, Antiquity 89, no. 348 (2015): 1456–72.

19. Gideon Sjoberg, The Preindustrial City (New York: Free Press, 1960).

20. This scanned model required a number of modelling and texturing refinements before being imported into the simulation. The original 3D file did not come with any texture (colour/roughness/reflectivity) detailing and the mesh itself was composed of about 15 million polygons, which is exceptionally high when working in real-time simulations. We were able to ‘re-topologise’ the model (redefine and rebuild the mesh at a lower resolution) using Autodesk Mudbox® or ZBrush software. Organising the re-topologised mesh into subdivision levels meant we were able to access multiple versions of the subdivision process. We then applied the high-detail geometry to the low-detail version using multiple texture maps. The result was the appearance of a high-detail model with a significantly reduced polygon count.

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