To the point
In downtown Beijing, people living in hutong are treated to a game that gives them an insight into the past and into the amity between two peoples, Hou Chenchen reports.
This is part of Finding Arniko, an immersive and interactive game featured during Beijing White Dagoba Cultural Week in June.
The White Dagoba in Beijing is the sole complete historical site of Dadu (the capital city) of the Yuan Dynasty that remains to this day.
"Cultural exchanges between China and Nepal are rich and profound, and the dagoba one sees today is the best example of that," says Gao Jianqin, the game's designer, who works at the China-Nepal Culture Exchange Center in Beijing.
Arniko was a highly skilled artisan who helped build a dagoba in today's Sa'kya county of Xizang, and he made a name for himself across Xizang and North China. When Kublai Khan decreed that a Buddha dagoba be erected on the historical site of the Yong'an Monastery, which had been destroyed, Arniko was assigned to design the white dagoba and to oversee its construction.
Seven hundred and fifty-three years later Beijingers, and anyone else with an ounce of interest, are invited through Finding Arniko to learn a little about the man and to view what has become one of his most celebrated architectural accomplishments.
Gao says it is the first time he has devised a cultural game, something that has been a "special and memorable experience" for him.
He chose the five most crucial moments in the history of Arniko's odyssey and incorporated these into the five main buildings of the White Dagoba Temple, he says. Visitors can immerse themselves in his adventure through interactive non-player character encounters, stepping into Arniko's world.
