Nineteen panelists will explore facets of Buddhism in the islands during a program consisting of seven panel sessions at the annual Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival.

George Tanabe, professor emeritus of religion at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, will moderate a free event, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 1 at the festival, which will be held on the grounds of City Hall.

“History is littered with dead religions, but Buddhism has survived for 2,500 years through its remarkable ability to adapt to new cultures and times as it went from India to the rest of Asia and on to the West,” Tanabe said in a news release. “In this series of panels, we take a look at some of the strategies Buddhists have used in Hawaii to adapt one of the world’s oldest religious tradition to modern life,” he added.

Co-sponsored by the Hawaii Council for the Humanities and Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Hawaii, the program does not require registration. Panelists will begin each 50-minute session with comments, and the audience will be invited to take part in an informal discussion.

Here’s the schedule:

>> “Architectural Adaptations of Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawaii,” 10 a.m. Panelists: Lorraine Minatoishi Palumbo, architectural historian and producer of the “Aloha Buddha” documentary, and Willa Tanabe, art historian and co-author of “Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawaii.”

>> “Translating the Buddhist Canon into English,” 11 a.m. Panelists: Tanabe, a historian of Japanese religions and chairman of Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai America’s Buddhist Translation Project; Michel Mohr, Japanese Buddhist specialist and translator of Zen texts; and Arnie Kotler, founder of Koa Books and former director of Parallax Press.

>> “Diamond Sangha Zen in Hawaii,” noon. Panelists: Helen Baroni, Japanese Buddhist specialist and author of “Love, Roshi: Robert Baker Aitken and His Distant Correspondents,” and Michael Kieran, teacher at the Palolo Zen Center of the Honolulu Diamond Sangha.

>> “Buddhism, Christianity and Hawaiian Spirituality,” 1 p.m. Panelists: the Rev. Sherman Thompson, chaplain of Kamehameha Schools and member of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii, and Manulani Aluli-Meyer, a former UH-Hilo associate professor and a Hawaiian spiritual practitioner.

>> “Socially Engaged Buddhism,” 2 p.m. Panelists: Rose Nakamura, co-founder of Project Dana; Maya Soetoro-Ng of the Matsunaga Institute for Peace at UH Manoa; and Therese Fitzgerald, Zen Buddhist minister and spiritual care counselor, Hospice Maui.

>> “Buddhist Meditation and the Rise of Mindfulness,” 3 p.m. Panelists: Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey of Vipassana Hawaii; Pat Masters, ordained Buddhist nun and teacher at Bodhi Tree Dharma Center; and the Rev. Bert Sumikawa of the Moiliili Hongwanji.

>> “Japanese Buddhist Adaptations for the Future,” 4 p.m. Panelists: Bishop Chishin Hirai of the Nichiren Mission of Hawaii; Bishop Kenjun Kawawata, Higashi Hongwanji Mission; and Bishop Eric Ma- tsumoto, head of the statewide Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii.