The Art of Buddhism: A Teacher’s Guide

6th Grade English Teacher
Shady Side Academy
The Art of Buddhism a Teacher’s Guide was put out by the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian. These galleries feature the art of Asia. Local DC area teachers designed the lessons. The lessons focus on the culture from India, China, and Japan because the museums' collections are particularly strong in art from these countries.
The unit contains many photographs of artwork and lot of information told in simplified, short stories. If you are teaching Buddhism and enjoy using art in your classroom, I think this unit would be a great addition to your collection.
The first section of the unit is an overview of Buddhism, which clearly explains The Middle Way, The Four Noble Truths, The Eightfold Path, Mudras, and the Wheel of Dharma.
The unit features a section on each country that gives background information for the teacher and student. There are maps, artwork, and short stories/poetry in the sections. With each piece of artwork is a thorough description explaining the symbolism, where it was found and the reason for the art. The sections are “The Birth of Buddhism in India”, “Buddhism in China: A Process of Transformation”, and “Japanese Buddhism: Selective Adaptation.”
There are also lesson plans for Elementary and Middle School and High School students. All lessons use art as a way of understanding more about Buddhism. Although the lessons are designed for specific grades, I think they could easily be adapted to other grades. Most have the students looking at art and either listening to the story of the Buddha or reading a story of the Buddha and responding to this information through art or writing. One elementary lesson has the students practice sitting like the Buddha and I think all students would enjoy that practice as they think about the symbolism of the different Mudras.
There is also a section titled “Buddhism Today” that features interviews with students who practice Buddhism. There is also a list of Buddhist festival with suggested activities for students and listed books and films. There is also a list of vocabulary words and their pronunciations, which I found useful.