Buddhist monks shave their heads, primarily so they have one less thing to worry about.
The idea is to follow the path of ‘lack of self-interest’ (they are not even allowed to look at their face in the mirror) and also focus on the path of enlightenment.
Lack of self-interest means limiting attention to their appearance (ego) and using that energy on the acts of kindness.
While the same could be achieved by leaving the hair and beard unkempt & unwashed, Buddha is believed to have opted for the ‘clean’ look for hygienic reasons.
These rules are recorded in the Buddhist text called Vinaya-Pitaka (basket of discipline).
The rules for robes are also found in Vinaya-Pitaka only, and these come from Buddha’s teaching the first monks and nuns to make their robes from “pure cloth”.
Pure cloth meant materials that no one wanted, e.g., chewed by rats or oxen, soiled by childbirth or menstrual blood, or used for wrapping the dead before cremation.
Any unusable part of this cloth was trimmed, and the cloth was washed clean.
It was then dyed by boiling with vegetable matter, bark, tuber, leaves, flowers, and spices such as turmeric or saffron.
This is what gave the robe the saffron/reddish colour.
Ready access and affordability of the natural dye (some plant matter is more readily available in a certain region) played a role in why monks from different regions wear different coloured robes.
Myanmar’s and Tibet’s monks, for example, wear maroon-coloured robes because natural maroon dyes were the cheapest and easiest to source in those regions.
The monks now wear robes made from donated cloth and not from the “pure cloth” as defined above.
The robes of the monks in South-East Asia have 3 parts: inner, outer, and an additional for cold weather.
The inner and outer robes are made from cut pieces of cloth and must not come from a single piece of cloth.
