19th-23rd Nov: EXHIBITION 'The World Of Your Senses'
LIBRARY OF TIBETAN WORKS AND ARCHIVES
in collaboration with
THE FOUNDATION FOR UNIVERSAL RESPONSIBILITY
of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Present
The World Of Your Senses Exhibition:
Buddhist and Scientific Perspectives on Sensory Perception
Date: 19th to 23rd November Time: 10:00am – 8:00pm Venue: Open Palm Court, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi - 03
The World Of Your Senses Exhibition shares parallel perspectives from Buddhism and western science on sensory perception. The exhibit script, content, and imagery were envisioned and designed by a dedicated and curiosity-filled group of thirty Tibetan Buddhist monks from Bon, Sakya, Gaden, Drepung, and Sera monasteries. The group of scholars have become growingly engaged with western science over the last several years, and now, they are sharing their unique perspective as learners, philosophers, and educators. The World Of Your Senses Exhibition will explore the questions: How do we see? How does hearing work? How does the nose smell? How does taste work? How do we touch? For each of the five senses, teaching stations hosted by the monks will provide hands-on investigations into each of the five sensory perceptions, and opportunities for visitors to explore sense phenomena and reflect these experience across both scientific and Buddhist paradigms. In addition, the Buddhist perspective includes a sixth sense – mind consciousness!
The exhibit was created by the inaugural cohort of the Sager Science Leadership Institute, a professional development program that supports the monastics in establishing science education and dialogues across the exiled community in India. Work on the exhibit began in December of 2009 at Drepung Monastery in South India, during a 2-week meeting of the Institute. Stephanie Norby (Director of Education) from the Smithsonian Institution worked with the monks to establish the elements of the exhibit design and guided each of the 6 leadership groups to develop preliminary scripts and designs, in preparations for a exhibit development workshop that took place in May, 2010 with Scott Schmidt (Senior Fabrications Supervisor) from the Office of Exhibit Central, Smithsonian Institution.
“It was clear at the first class that the monks wanted the Buddhist perceptions of the senses to be equally presented in the exhibit, both in their similarities and dissimilarities to science. This intent in many ways informed the physical design of the exhibit.”
- Scott Schmidt
At both of these workshops, teachers from the Exploratorium in San Francisco supported the development of the inquiry-based teaching stations. Linda Shore (Director of the Teacher Institute), David Barker (Senior Designer), and Lori Lambertson (New Teacher Mentor, Teacher Institute) shared numerous interactive activities on sense perception, and teaching models for using the activities in the sharing of science. The monks chose their favorite, and in many cases, have adapted them to help impart their perspective on Buddhism and science.
The World of Your Senses Exhibition is the result of many years of work growing out of directives from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his long history engaging western scientists in dialogue. Since 2000, The Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamshala India has led an initiative to introduce science education widely across the major Tibetan Buddhist monastic institutions.
Click here to view some of the exhibits Sensory Perception Exhibition
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