A Virtual Hindu Temple
and Digital Storytelling:
Integrating Information Technology Techniques
into the Religious Studies Curriculum
Our Virtual Hindu Temple immerses the visitor in a devotional ritual
for the Hindu deity Krishna. This temple is based on Radharaman Temple,
an actual temple in Vrindavan, India built in the sixteenth century,
and conveys the sights and sounds of contemporary practice. When studying
the world's religious traditions, we investigate not only the beliefs
and philosophies, but also the musical traditions, notions of sacred
space and sacred images. Using an immersive digital storytelling approach
opens up new areas of inquiry that reflect new research and teaching
methods in the field of Religious Studies. This temple provides an integrated
information environment that will allow students to learn through experience.
In the Hindu tradition, "seeing" the divine is an important aspect of
the human-divine encounter, and it involves a sensorial experience difficult
to convey through verbal description. Immersive storytelling technology
enables us to teach and communicate in forms that better replicate an
individual's experience of culture.