Cultural Diplomacy through Storytelling: An Ontology-Based Semantic Framework for Cross-Cultural Understanding
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48048/ajac.2026.109Keywords:
Digital heritage, Heritage documentation, Heritage ontology, Indian knowledge systems, StorytellingAbstract
This paper explores how two foundational Indian story-based texts, the Panchatantra and the Ramayana, have influenced and continue to influence global political, educational, and cultural systems through centuries of translation, adaptation, and reinterpretation. Drawing on translation studies, cultural exchange, and semantic ontology, it shows that these texts functioned not only as literature but also as tools of soft power, spreading ideas on ethics, governance, and leadership across cultures. To represent this process, the study develops a preliminary ontology framework for story-based texts, aligned with cultural heritage standards such as CIDOC CRM and FRBRoo. Using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL), the framework encodes narratives, agents, and media as machine-readable data, tracing story transmission from manuscripts to modern adaptations. A prototype demonstrates how multimodal and multilingual variants — such as Panchatantra → Kalila wa Dimna → Directorium Humanae Vitae — can be modelled to show semantic continuity and cultural transformation. Preliminary findings suggest that the ontology supports digital preservation and enables new interpretive and computational approaches. In AI, it provides culturally balanced training data; in diplomacy, it supports heritage-based storytelling; and in education, it informs ontology-driven curricula that integrate ethical and philosophical diversity. The study highlights classical narratives as active digital resources for technology, diplomacy, and global cultural understanding.
Highlights
• Shows how the Panchatantra and Ramayana shaped global cultural, political, and educational systems through translation and reinterpretations.
• Introduces a semantic ontology framework for story-based texts using RDF/OWL aligned with CIDOC-CRM and FRBRoo standards.
• Demonstrates modelling of narrative transmission to reveal semantic continuity.
• Shows the framework enables digital preservation and new computational approaches to classical literature.
• Suggests application in AI training, cultural diplomacy, and ontology-driven education.
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