Tibetan Archive: Exploring meta-ethnic intangible cultural heritage through VR gamification and AI-driven public education

This paper presents the “Tibetan Archive” project, a digital framework designed to facilitate public engagement with Tibetan intangible cultural heritage (ICH) through the integration of immersive Virtual Reality (VR), AI-driven content generation, and gamification. While traditional preservation methods often struggle to engage contemporary audiences, this study explores how digital “embodied interaction” can bridge these gaps by situating heritage within the theoretical framework of meta-ethnicity. Utilising an AI-driven pipeline (Midjourney and Luma AI), we developed three interactive scenarios: Tibetan horse racing, sutra printing, and ritual practice. The system's efficacy was evaluated through a mixed-methods study ( N = 50), combining psychometric questionnaires with biometric data, including eye-tracking and EEG (electroencephalogram) analysis. Results indicate that embodied interaction significantly outperforms passive and gamified modes in fostering cultural resonance, with participants showing a 66% increase in comprehensive cultural understanding. EEG data further confirmed higher cognitive engagement and “flow states” during task-based manual interactions. This research offers a scalable, AI-facilitated model for the participatory preservation of ICH, demonstrating how technology can transcend geographical boundaries to sustain cultural identity in a globalised era.