Bali Digital Heritage Initiative
We create a platform for 3D-recording more than 5,000 Balinese temples
safely, sustainably, and collaboratively.
We aim to empower Balinese communities to preserve their cultural heritage for future generations. We believe a participatory approach — data by people for people — is the best way to achieve documentation that is scalable, sustainable and culturally safe.
Balinese temples have undergone cycles of destruction and reconstruction for hundreds of years. With each recreation, we have lost the authenticity of past architecture and values, and before 2024, there had been no serious effort to create records of the temples for future generations. We aim to create a record for generations over the next 50 years, 100 years and beyond.
Our approach is centred around community participation. Local communities contribute videos of temples and temple parts in their areas. We then use these videos to create high-quality 3D records of the temples. The videos, 3D models and metadata of the temples are all looped back to the communities. We envision the data collection campaign that runs every 5 years where, for a number of months, everyone in Bali contributes video records.
On our platform, private family temples can only be accessed by the owner, ensuring data privacy. This video is used with permission.
Public temples can be seen and contributed to by anyone. This video shows the great gates of Pura Sari Abangan, reconstructed from community contributions. This temple was built between the 8th and 11th centuries.
With the amount of collected records, the potential applications for cultural heritage preservation and education are enormous. This is an example of immersive visualisation of a temple.
