Ancient Buddhist sites linked to Maritime Silk Road explored in Hong Kong video and audio exhibition
- ‘Atlas of Maritime Buddhism’ uses a mix of archaeology, digital imaging, digital media and location shooting to explore historical Buddhist sites
- Borobudur in Indonesia is there, as well as India’s Ajanta Caves and two other cave complexes there, but there are surprisingly few images of cave murals
The preamble to the exhibition “Atlas of Maritime Buddhism” emphasises the division of the ancient Silk Road into land and sea routes. The exhibition at City University of Hong Kong is similarly two-pronged.
It is as much about the historic transmission of a religion and culture that binds diverse Asian nations together as the new technologies being used to capture heritage materials and to present them in a physical museum setting.
The Hong Kong exhibition, which will be installed permanently at Taiwan’s biggest Buddhist monastery when Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, is the result of a six-year, unfinished odyssey that involved an international team of visual and audio archivists traversing seven countries, visiting hundreds of historic sites from India to Indonesia and capturing over 1,000 images and recordings.
While Google offers street views and photos taken inside a lot of these Buddhist sites, the way the “Atlas” team present their visual materials makes for an immersive visitor experience, as well as giving a much-needed break from screens.
This exhibition presents materials from 90 of the sites that the team visited. One highlight is the “panoramic navigator”. Visitors stand in the middle of a 360-degree circular screen and navigate from one country to another using a steering device that resembles a heavy-duty tower viewer.
Once you zoom into a destination, you are shown interactive, life-size panoramas of selected Buddhist sites such as the Great Stupa of Sanchi in India and Borobudur in Indonesia.