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Laos Essential Artistry Posting Page
Saturday, September 6, 2008
I took this series of photos in Vientiane as a monk was putting on his robe before evening chanting. And what is the significance of the Buddhist monks' robes?
The scholar Leedom Lefferts wrote in The Secrets of Southeast Asian Textiles: Myth, Status and the Supernatural published by the James HW Thompson Foundation. "One of the most distinctive set of clothes in Theravada Buddhist Southeast Asia is monks' robes. The saffron, earthen color of these robes, the ways they are made, their style of wearing, and the quantity of cloth all serve to separate their wearers from the surrounding lay population... these pieces of cloth - are designed to be worn by the adepts of a faith dedicated to renunciation [and] embody power, prestige, and status. It is quite clear that men wearing the three robes designated by the Buddha as the uniform of those who would go forth to carry his findings into the world are accorded respect, authority, and power far beyond that of any person in lay attire, no matter how ornate... During the Buddha's lifetime and certainly since, these robes have become distinguishing symbols of the power of his thoughts and of the organization of monks and novices, the Sangha, phrasong, who personify and carry on these thoughts."          by: Laos Essential Artistry 
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