One of the hottest viral trends – where people sprint, leap and crash around Cambodia’s historic Angkor Wat and other temple ruins in the Southeast Asian nation in a live recreation of a popular video game – has conservationists aghast. Several say the race for views denigrates the almost 900-year-old sculptures and risks irreparable damage. Short videos of visitors running down narrow stone pathways and vaulting over passageways – often overlaid with sounds from the Temple Run video game – have been making the rounds on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms.
Some videos have received more than 2 million views and inspire copycat versions daily. Simon Warrack, a conservationist who has worked for three decades to preserve the nearly millennia-old ruins at Angkor, is troubled by the potential damage as well as the cultural and religious insensitivities being trampled on. “You wouldn’t run through St Peters in Rome or any Western church, so why is it OK to do it in Cambodia,” he says.
“It’s not just potential damage to the stones by people bumping into them and falling or knocking things over – which is real – but it’s also damage to the spiritual and cultural value of the temples.” Warrack says he has spoken to Cambodian counterparts and officials overseeing the complex who share his concerns. “Angkor Wat is still deeply revered by the people,” he says.
“Every stone is considered to contain the spirits of the ancestors.” Internationa.