Mixed reality technology, combined with 3D reconstruction and visualization techniques, can place digitized heritage sites ``anywhere'' at ``anytime''. It could help educate foreigners and reconnect people living abroad with their culture. However, this type of digital representation is deeply culturally embedded and should be visualized ethically. Yet, current literature lacks an understanding of the impact--empirically derived benefits and drawbacks--of visualizing sacred cultural sites in foreign contexts. This position paper aims to spark scientific discussion to fill this gap in the literature. Our case study is data utilizations of the Bali Digital Heritage Initiative (BADHI), a large initiative that aims to create the first 3D records of thousands of Balinese (Indonesian) temples. This paper introduces initial directions to explore and a prototype visualization of Balinese temples on Apple's Vision Pro, generated using 3D Gaussian Splatting from community-sourced video. This prototype provides an initial understanding of what it means to have sacred temples 'travel' to foreign contexts, facilitating further investigation.
This position paper is part of Darmawiguna's PhD. This publication is part of the BADHI project.
Darmawiguna, I. G. M., Bernhard Jenny, Kadek Ananta Satriadi, Made Windu Antara Kesiman, Thomas Chandler, Putu Hendra Suputra, and Kadek Teguh Dermawan. 'When Temples Travel: Towards Understanding Cultural Impacts of Visualizing Sacred Sites in Foreign Contexts.' Paper presented at the CHI 2026 Workshop on The Co-Living between Reality and Virtuality as a Daily Routine, 2026.
Anthony Wilson, Arnadi Murtiyoso, Bernhard Jenny, I Gede Mahendra Darmawiguna, Putu Hendra Suputra, Thomas Chandler, Made Windu Antara Kesiman, Kadek Ananta Satriadi