Despite the backlash, TikTok users have racked up millions of views on a clip showing them running inside a Cambodian temple.
A new TikTok trend that sees them tourists to run around the Angkor Wat in an attempt to represent a popular video game has cause concern to maintainers.
Holidaymakers have recorded themselves sprinting through the holy temple at Cambodiawhich is a monument of its world heritage Unescoclaiming that this is “Temple Run in real life”.
@sarah0utside real life temple run #fyp #templerun #angkorwat #angkorwatcambodia ♬ Temple Run 2 (Game Remix) – Josh Abbott
The Temple Runcreated by Imagini Studios, follows an explorer who runs away from strange creatures chasing him. The game has been making waves since its release, with Temple Run 2 gaining 50 million downloads in its first two weeks in January 2013.
In recent years many tourists have recorded themselves running into the Hindu-Buddhist temple – built by the king of Khmer Suryavarman II at the beginning of the 12th century – and have gathered millions of views.
A conservationist, who has been working to preserve the site for 30 years, added that the trend could be seen as desecration of Eastern religions, saying: “You wouldn’t walk through St. Peter’s in Rome or any Western church, so why is it okay to do it in Cambodia?”.
Meanwhile, Mr Hans Leisen, who headed a German maintenance program at Angkor Watargued that the trend is “nonsense.”
He specifically said: “If you run inside the temple, you will not see the beauty of the sculptures. And if you fall or trip, you’ll touch a wall to steady yourself and endanger the fragile sculptures.”.
