Kasaya
Kāṣāya (Sanskrit: kāṣāya; Pali: kasāva; Sinhala: කසාවත; Chinese: 袈裟; pinyin: jiāshā; Japanese: けさ kesa; Korean: 가사 gasa; Vietnamese: cà-sa, Tibetan: ཆོས་གོས, THL: chögö) are the robes of fully ordained Buddhist monks and nuns, named after a brown or saffron dye. In Sanskrit and Pali, these robes are also given the more general term cīvara, which references the robes without regard to color.
Origin and construction
Buddhist kāṣāya are said to have originated in ancient India as a set of robes for the devotees of Gautama Buddha. A notable variant has a pattern reminiscent of an Asian rice field. Original kāṣāya were constructed of discarded fabric. These were stitched together to form three rectangular pieces of cloth, which were then fitted over the body in a specific manner. The three main pieces of cloth are the antarvāsa, the uttarāsaṅga, and the saṃghāti. Together they form the "triple robe," or tricīvara. The tricīvara is described more fully in the Theravāda Vinaya (Vin 1:94 289).
Jiāshā in Chinese Buddhism
- Wikipedia article: Clothing of Chinese Buddhist monks
In Chinese Buddhism, the term jiasha (Chinese: 袈裟; pinyin: jiāshā) was borrowed from the term kāṣāya.[9] In China, the jiasha refers to a one-piece, patchworked rectangular fabric which is worn over a long one-piece, cross-collar robe known as zhiduo.
During the early period of Chinese Buddhism, the most common color was red. Later, the color of the robes came to serve as a way to distinguish monastics, just as they did in India. However, the colors of a Chinese Buddhist monastic's robes often corresponded to their geographical region rather than to any specific schools. 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.
During the Tang dynasty, Chinese Buddhist monastics typically wore grayish-black robes, and were even colloquially referred to as Ziyi (緇衣), "those of the black robes." However, the Song dynasty monk Zanning (919–1001 CE) writes that during the earlier Han-Wei period, the Chinese monks typically wore red.
Kesa in Japanese Buddhism
The Japanese term kesa came from the Chinese transliteration of the term kāṣāya. Like in China, the kesa is a rectangular garment that is worn over the left shoulder. The Japanese kesa are also made of patchwork (割截衣; kassetsue) which can be composed of five, seven, nine, or more panels of fabric sewed together. The kesa is worn over a Chinese-style long robe, called jikitotsu (直裰) which was also developed in China, and had a belt or sash tied at the waist. Zen Buddhist monks wear a form of formal dress which is composed of two kimonos, covered by the jikitotsu; and the kesa is finally worn on top of the jikitotsu.
Japanese buddhism kesa (袈裟) had used to be worn covering the entire body beneath the head, including both shoulders, but now it is worn with the right shoulder exposed, except in special cases (偏袒右肩; Hendan-uken). This is to show the worship and reverence for Buddha, as opposed to the ones worn by Tathāgata covering both shoulders (通肩; Tsuken).
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