In the video, against the backdrop of the 900-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site, tourists ran through Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple, mimicking the events of Temple Run, a mobile game in the endless runner genre.
The series of videos posted on TikTok outraged many historians and monument defenders, who called the bloggers’ activities a «catastrophe».
«It’s not just potential material damage because people jump over stones or trip over them, it’s damage to the spiritual and cultural value of the churches», — he said in a commentary Bloomberg Simon Warrack, conservation consultant.
At the same time, this is not the first time that bloggers have abused the temple in Angkor — in April, for example, the authorities complained that YouTubers had abused local monkeys for a video.
«People often forget that Angkor Wat and other temples — are places of living cultural heritage for Cambodians», — said in a commentary Business Insider Alison Carter, professor of archaeology at the University of Oregon. «If something is forbidden in a church or mosque, it should not be done in an Angkor temple».
At the same time, some Cambodians on social media defended the bloggers, noting that such a trend on TikTok could benefit the local tourism industry, which has declined since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism and the National Authority of ASPARA, which is responsible for protecting the archaeological site, have not yet responded to a request for comment.
Angkor Wat can be seen in the movie «Lara Croft: Tomb Raider» 2001, and elements similar to the temple ruins were also used in the Temple Run game itself. In total, there are more than 100 temples in Angkor, and the area is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. Before the pandemic, a record 6.6 million tourists visited Angkor, and this year the ruins have attracted 630 thousand visitors.
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