Tibetan Clothes of the Tibetan Nobles

Tibet was under the rule of the serf system in a pretty long period of the history. The slave owners were the earliest nobles in Tibet. They enjoyed a pretty rich life compared to the people at the bottom of the social level. With the development of history, Tibetan Buddhism was spread to every corner of Tibet. It is said that the Tibetan culture actually is the Tibetan Buddhism culture. Hence, the Tibetan clothes of the Tibetan noble are greatly related to their social status and the strict rules under Tibetan Buddhism.

Tibetan Clothes of the Tibetan Noblemen and Noblewomen

Most of the Tibetan nobles would wear clothes made of silk and satin, or the fur of otter, lynx, fox and other animals. Please note that the color, style and material of Tibetan clothes of the Tibetans are decided by their social status. Besides, their hats, cushion, harness and other things are also or strict distinctions due to their social level.

The Tibetan clothes of the noblewoman are generally related to the social status of her husband. Take the Badrol (the most commonly used decoration) as an example: there are two kinds of Badrols – the pearl Badrol and coral Badrol. The pearl Badrol would only be wear by the noblewoman whose husband enjoys a social status of higher than fourth grade. The other noblewomen could only wear the carol Badrol if their husband is lower than the fourth grade. During the celebration of the important festivals, the Tibetan nobles would wear their best Tibetan clothes and decorate them with luxury and splendid jewelries to show their social status.

History of the Tibetan Clothes of Tibetan Nobles

The Tibetan clothes of the Tibetan nobles could be dated back to the Tubo Kingdom of 1300 years ago. It is recorded that Sontsen Gampo and his ministers just protected themselves from the coldness and wind with felt and furs when he firstly moved to Lhasa. When Princess Wencheng of Chinese Tang Dynasty married him, he presented some precious dress materials to the ministers so as to make them looked more splendid.

In the middle 17th century, the Tibetan clothes of the Tibetan nobles at that time were in chaos. Officers wore different styles clothes, local Tibetan style, Mongolian style or Han style. The fifth Dalai Lama collected information about the Tibetan clothes wore by the ancient Tibetan nobles and decided to rule the chaos. Officers are required to wear the clothes according to the rule and some of the Tibetan clothes were inherited since then.