Kasaya (clothing)

Kāṣāya[a] are the robes of fully ordained Buddhist monks and nuns, named after a brown or saffron dye.

Buddhist kāṣāya are said to have originated in ancient India as a set of robes for monks who followed the teachings of Gautama Buddha.

[2] Between 148 and 170 CE, the Parthian monk An Shigao came to China and translated a work which describes the color of monastic robes used in five major Indian Buddhist sects, called Da Biqiu Sanqian Weiyi (Ch.

[3] Another text translated at a later date, the Śāriputraparipṛcchā, contains a very similar passage corroborating this information, but the colors for the Sarvāstivāda and Dharmaguptaka sects are reversed.

[4][5] In traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, which follow the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, red robes are regarded as characteristic of the Mūlasarvāstivādins.

[6] According to Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, the robes of fully ordained Mahāsāṃghika monastics were to be sewn out of more than seven but no more than twenty-three sections.

[2] By the maturation of Chinese Buddhism, only the Dharmaguptaka ordination lineage was still in use, and therefore the color of robes served no useful purpose as a designation for sects, the way that it had in India.

[13] The kesa is worn over a Chinese-style long robe, called jikitotsu (直裰) which was also developed in China,[14][15] and had a belt or sash tied at the waist.

[citation needed] This is to show the worship and reverence for Buddha, as opposed to the ones worn by Tathāgata covering both shoulders (通肩; Tsuken).