UK - London - Tibetan Buddhist monks walk through Green Park

Young Tibetan Buddhist monks walk through Green Park towards the tube. 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. 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, robe color varies from yellow to brown (Thailand, Theravada), red to purple (Burma, Theravada) and grey or black (e.g., Vietnam, Vajrayana (Zen).

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Filename: 20110822monks in green parkB.jpg
Copyright: Mike Kemp
Image Size: 4243x2828 / 977.2KB; London English England Britain British UK United Kingdom Michael Mike Kemp Tibetan monks golden saffron yellow robe robes orange wakl walking Green Park young boy boys male Buddhist Buddhism
Contained in galleries: 2011

Young Tibetan Buddhist monks walk through Green Park towards the tube. 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. 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, robe color varies from yellow to brown (Thailand, Theravada), red to purple (Burma, Theravada) and grey or black (e.g., Vietnam, Vajrayana (Zen).