This is a lesson I did about the spread of Buddhism from India and how it engaged in the process of cultural diffusion, changing and incorporating local beliefs as it spread to central Asia, east Asia, and southeast Asia. In order to do this, I used five different images of the Buddha that reflect different aspects of Buddhism and how it changed over time.
Students examine these five images (from India, Afghanistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Japan) and discuss how the Buddha is depicted, and ho