[WIP] Anno Domini 600 : Continental Hegemony (Updated Textual researvh Tibetan clothing and adornments on 2012/11/09)

[Max-Scribe]

Some people may think that we have abandoned our mod as we have been slient for more than 3 months, but actually we are still working and be active! In this 3 months, we have finished Tibetan units and have begun the work of Sassanian Soldiers!

Today, I am here to show some textual research of my Tibetan Units, Wish you like them.


Once I delivered a view in another of my article: The ones who can reflect the culture and dress characteristics best are ordinary militias although they are lack in training and weaponry. The problem we have to face all the time is how do they look like,they wear the daily clothes of their nation which we can not draw without the related knowledge. In conclusion, any thoughts that we can make the low-fighting-capacity militia at our will would be jokes. This article is aimed at describing ordinary Tibetan people's clothing and adornments during 7th century and 9th century.


Most studies about Tibetan clothing and adornments are based on pictures from the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. Under the condition of lacking in excavations, those pictures are the best ones we can refer to. Many scholars have written articles about the study of Tibetan clothing and adornments, among which I personally recommend "The study of dress of minority in Mogao Grottoes","Study of Tibetan Collar robes " and " Study of Tibetan clothing and adornments in' Picture of Tsenpo's pray to Buddha'". written by Pro. Xie Jing, Skien Karman's "Study of Tibetan clothing during 7th and 11th century" and Pro. Liu Jun, Heather Karmay, Pro. Yang Qingfan's writings. However, those writings all focus on describing the clothing of Tsenpo (the emperor of Tibetan empire) and his retinues and they do not pay much attention on functions of Tibetan clothing.

As we know, most portraits of Tibetan Tsenpos were fund in the picture of Vimalakirti which were drew in 8th century. But he painting style of those portraits were affected by China and we haven't found any record to prove Tsenpos' traveling to Dunhuang. So the authenticity of Vimalakirti is still questionable and we have to refer to the paintings on wooden coffins which were unearthed in Tibetans tombs in Qinghai. Taking time and place into consideration, these paintings are definitely more suitable for consulting

So we can gain a conclusion that, the Tibetans who lived between 7th and 10th century often paint their face red, make their hair pigtails and use kerchiefs. In fact, we can still see the tradition of pigtails in some aged devout Tibetans, Painting face red, which originated from Bonpo ( The initial religion in Tibet) has lost in history and Kerchiefs were also replaced by hats.


Firstly, we shall focus on Tibetan headgears, kerchiefs and hair styles
We can see the details on wooden coffins unearthed in Qinghai Province, PRC.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The follows are portraits of Tibetan Tsenpos and his retinues fund in the picture of Vimalakirti, Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The pictures I post above are typical Tibetan hats and kerchiefs of that age, we can gain a conclusion that the major styles of Tibetan headgears are red head bands(红抹额), bight caps(绳圈冠),Sunglow hat(朝霞冠, funded in portraits of Tsenpo and his senior bodyguards ,No.158 and No.159 grotto, Dunhuang), and white towering kerchief on the cross-legged man 's head on the first wooden coffin.

We can see details in the follow picture.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Towering kerchief ,see the man on the left.

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What's more, we can gain a conclusion from the pictures that rabbles usually wear red head bands and bight crowns while noble men's preference are Sunglow hat and towering kerchief.

[IMG]file:///C:/Users/ADMINI~1/AppData/Local/Temp/ksohtml/wps_clip_image-6477.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/ADMINI~1/AppData/Local/Temp/ksohtml/wps_clip_image-29031.png[/IMG]1. Sunglow hat
The new annals of Tang (新唐书） recorded that "Tibetans usually wear in brown and have sunglow hat on their heads,men or women all wear their hair pigtails." Collected works of Dunhuang Grottoes mentioned that Tsenpo wears a Sunglow hat and red head bands. We can also find some red top hats in NO. 159 grotto in Mo Gao which is considered to be one typical kind of Sunglow hat. The word "sunglow" ,whose Chinese pronunciation is "Zhao Xia", actually means the red tussah silk imported from Korea. Records of Tang(唐会要） recorded that Tibet, where is considered not suitable for cotton cultivation, also pays Sunglow silk as tribute to Tang.The new annals of Tang also recorded this kind of silk was imported through Protectorate of the Western Regions(安西都护府，An Xi Protectorate）.Sunglow hat is usually as red as morning glow, it's a straight hat that twine the wearer's head. We can see from top of the hat that the fabric texture of it is quite thick, both red and white top sunglow hat have been funded and the hat usually reveal a white edge on the bottom. I guess that Tibetan sunglow hat should be made of fur or linen stripes as Tibet is not suitable for cotton cultivation. Those fur or linen stripes usually have one or two 15cm-wide-white hemmings to form a white top and bottom hat.
Sunglow hats and red head bands can be worn together. Tibetan noble men usually wear Sunglow hats first and then use red head bands to fasten the hat, the portrait of Tsenpo in NO. 158 and 159 grotto shows this, the Tsenpo wears a red silk fabric,which is considered to be part of red head band.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

2. Red head band
Red head band can be used alone or together with Sunglow hat. Low ranking retinues and common usually use the red head band exclusively. An example is picture in NO. 231,a retinue standing in front of Tsenpo wears a red head band. Red head band is shorter and narrower than Sunglow hat, but its softer. Red head band is not always red, for example, the retinue in the picture of NO. 231 grotto wears a dark red head band with bluish green figures on it.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

3. Bight caps.
Pro. Xie Jing 's view is that the kerchiefs appeared in NO. 225 and NO. 220 grotto are bight caps, more over, she also considers the hat appears on wooden coffins unearthed in Qinghai to be bight caps. But according to my study, they are actually different. Obviously we can see the retinue in the picture of Dunhuang wears a red head band, which twines his neck and leave his hair exposed on the top. While the man on wooden coffins of Qinghai wears a bight cap, which is thicker and wraps the whole head, sagged to his waist. Bight cap has many color types, its much longer than the red head band and softer than Sunglow hat. Bight cap is considered to be one kind of early Tibetan clothes, while the period of Red head band is after 780 ad, when Tibet's occupation of Dunhuang.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

4.Towering kerchief
Pro.Xu Xinguo believes that the Tsenpo hunkers tent and the noble men who pull their bow in pictures on wooden coffins of Qinghai wear towering kerchiefs.The picture of Illustration of Raudraksa also depict a man wearing towering kerchief. Towering kerchief is similar to Sunglow hat but its longer and has a sharp, forerake top. Towering kerchiefs are usually red, but there are some other colors like white and brown. The compliance of towering kerchief is between bight cap and sunglow hat. We can gain a conclusion that towering kerchief is one kind of high ranking noble men's hat styles as the Tsenpos and some other nobles wear towering kerchiefs in pictures funded in Lhasa.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

5. Pigtails
The pigtails in pictures of Dunhuang grottoes and wooden coffins in Qinghai have the same style, the difference between them only lie in the place of its tip. According to the picture in NO. 231 grotto, Tibetans usually part their hair in forehead, then make these two beams of hair pigtails and tie a knot behind the head. According to the portrait of Tsenpo and his guards,Tibetans usually use jeweled rope to fix pigtails and reveal the tip of left pigtail on the right.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

6. Red face painting
It is recorded by historical document that Tibetans have a customer to paint their face red, which is believed to originate from the animal sacrifice of Bonpo. We can find some evidence of red face painting on wooden coffins in Qinghai as dozens of people inthe picture paint their face red, they use red pigment to draw different kinds of red punctations on their faces, This kind of makeup is a endemic style of Tibet and also affect the makeup styles of Tangut kingdom (1038-1227). A painting drew by Wu Yuanzhi (a famous painter lived during 10th century and 11th century) showed a goddess who has the same makeup with the Tibetans in the pictures of Qinghai wooden coffins (《星宿神》 The English name of this painting is Star gods, which is unearthed in Kharar-khoto and collected in State Hermitage)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

PS: More foresights of Tibetan soldiers is coming soon, and the making of Sassanian soldiers is in progress!.

[evenmov]

+u capture the first floor

[againster]

Great work!