Some Activities:

1.  “Big Map”:  Using an overhead projector, have students create an over-sized map of India, and then use various atlases and other resources to locate the major Buddhist pilgrimage sites (Lumbini [in current-day Nepal], Bodhgaya; Varanasi [Benares]; as well as Japan, Burma (now Myanmar), Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, etc.

2.  Understanding Symbols:
Trace the “pierrot”/clown/Christ connections, especially between pages 33-99.
Create a graphic organizer, where the students can write the page number and textual reference in the left-hand column, and the significance/interpretation on the right.
The references include:
33             “That pierrot” –what Mitsuko calls Otsu
51             mention of Roualt prints (Rouault is famous for clown-pictures; see
                 artcyclopedia.com/artists/roualt_georges.html)
75             Numada’s bird looked like a “pierrot”
76             Pierrot-bird cries “I’m lonely”
77             Pierrot-bird is an annoyance & nuisance, “as Jesus had been”
                 Clowns = symbol of Christ
79             “Pierrot” that Roualt had drawn
82             Numada’s conviction that his mynah bird had “died for him”
99             Gaston looked like a “pierrot in a circus,” he is mocked and made a fool of,
                 and be believes in God
103           Gaston had soaked up all the anguish in Tsukada’s heart
Have students draft a topic sentence about what the pierrot/clown imagery might symbolize.
Homework:  Have students complete an 8-10 sentence paragraph about clown imagery.

3.  Create WATO-character charts for Otsu and Mitsuko.

4.  Have students do mini-research projects (topics:  Indira Gandhi; Kali; castes/untouchables; the life of the Buddha; “suffering servant” imagery in the Biblical Book of Isaiah; the Burma Trail)