Tibetan Monks Robes Views
The Chinese practice continues today in China, Japan and Korea. The sleeved robes come in variety of styles, and there is a wide range of sashes, capes, obis, stoles, and other accoutrements worn with robes in these Mahayana countries. On ceremonial occasions, monks, priests, and sometimes nuns of many schools often wear a sleeved inner robe, usually gray or white; a sleeved outer robe, fastened in the front or wrapped like a kimono, and a kashaya wrapped over the outer sleeved robe. In Japan and Korea the outer sleeved robe is often black, brown or gray, and the kashaya is black, brown or gold, but there are many exceptions to that. The Robe in Tibet Tibetan nuns, monks and lamas wear an enormous variety of robes, hats, and capes, but the basic robe consist of these parts:
The special dress of ordained people, the robes, comes from the idea of wearing cheap clothes just to protect the body from weather and climate. Monks often make their own robes from cloth that is donated to them.[1] They shall not be made from one piece of cloth, but mended together from several pieces. Since dark red was the cheapest colour in Kashmir, the Tibetan tradition has red robes. In the south, yellow played the same role, though the color of saffron also had cultural associations in India; in East Asia, robes are yellow, grey or black.
Otherwise, youmrs"ll be thinking, yld"What is Lama talking about? Weirs"re happy here. We rs"re so beautiful wearing our robes, I want to wear these robes, I want to wear what my guru wears, I dontrs"t want to wear something samsaric.mrd" However, you are from an entirely different culture. When Buddhism went from India to Tibet, the monksers" robes changed completely; theresrs"s nothing Indian left. The same thing happened when Buddhism went to China and Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Of course, there are some similarities, but basically they are different. Why are they different? You cannot say their Dharma is bad Dharma. You cannot say that Tibetan Dharma is better, that it is better to wear Tibetan robes. That would just be an ego trip. Because climates and cultures vary, people compromise and come up with something that suits their environment.
For example, the shem-thab. Thai monks don rs"t wear those as do we Tibetans; they don.rs"t wear zens, either, so whatdrs"s the big deal? The most important thing is that the robes you wear should signify, or identify, you as a monk or nun. Ultimately, of course, robes donsrs"t mean anything.
Tibetan Monks Robes Images
