The Colorful Celestial Robes of Kham

The Colorful Celestial Robes of Kham

　　"Though I am not from Chamdo, I know Chamdo’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s copper belts around the waist and mouth harps hanging down;

　　Though I am not from Dege, I know Dege’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s a jewel atop the head cradled in golden lotus;

　　Though I am not from Litang, I know Litang’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s silver discs tied in the hair jingling merrily;"

　　Kham is beautiful, beautiful in its mountains and waters;

　　Kham is beautiful, beautiful in its traditional culture;

　　Kham is beautiful, beautiful in its clothing culture, marvelous as a rainbow-colored divine robe;

　　Kham is beautiful, beautiful in its creators — the hardworking and wise people of Kham.

　　The Tibetan people have lived since ancient times on the vast snowy plateau of the southwestern part of the motherland. They lead a nomadic and semi-agricultural lifestyle, "following water and grass," high on the Roof of the World. Hence, their clothing has a unique and typical alpine ethnic style. Due to regional differences and varying lifestyles, Tibetan costumes across the region also feature distinct local characteristics. Generally speaking, the Weizang attire centered around Lhasa and Shigatse is elegant and luxurious, with clear social stratification; the Anduo attire of the Gansu-Qinghai area is magnificent, maintaining unity while allowing for local variations; whereas the clothing of the Kham people, who reside in the eastern part of the Tibetan region, is broad, rugged, heroic, vigorous, and bold in spirit.

　　Kham includes regions such as Chamdo in Tibet, Diqing in Yunnan, Yushu and Guoluo in Qinghai, and Ganzi and Aba in Sichuan. Kham costumes, shaped by the natural geographical environment and regional cultural differences of these smaller areas, have formed unique local costume customs, commonly known as Kham attire. With its exaggerated silhouettes, bright colors, simple patterns, thick textures, diverse styles, and profound cultural meanings, it stands out uniquely in Tibetan clothing art, refreshing the eye. Just among the women’s costumes in the Kham region, there is an old folk song that praises them in this way:

　　"Though I am not from Chamdo, I know Chamdo’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s copper belts around the waist and mouth harps hanging down;

　　Though I am not from Gonjo, I know Gonjo’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s three strings of ornaments hanging down the chest;

　　Though I am not from Dege, I know Dege’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s a jewel atop the head cradled in golden lotus;

　　Though I am not from Horke, I know Horke’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s red and green ribbons wrapped several times around the waist;

　　Though I am not from Dardo, I know Dardo’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s red cords binding the hair and winding around the head;

　　Though I am not from Litang, I know Litang’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s silver discs tied in the hair jingling merrily;

　　Though I am not from Batang, I know Batang’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s silver threads wound in the hair flowing at the forehead;

　　Though I am not from Yanjing, I know Yanjing’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s a wind scarf wrapped around the head and a knife hanging at the waist.

　　Though I am not from Changtai, I know Changtai’s adornments; if you’d have me speak of them, it’s a Bage hairstyle shining with a radiant glow."

　　The Ancient Silhouette of Kham Costume Culture

　　The rich and colorful Kham Tibetan costumes have a long history and distinctive ethnic characteristics. They are a unique practical art and crystallization of cultural art created by the Kham people living in the eastern part of the Tibetan region, vividly reflecting the infinite wisdom, creativity, artistic accomplishment, and aesthetic taste of their creators — the Tibetan people.

　　The unique Tibetan attire holds special significance for the Tibetan people who have lived and thrived on the Roof of the World. Like all traditional cultures of ethnic groups, the formation of Kham Tibetan clothing has also undergone a long history of gradual development, evolution, and integration.

　　At the Karuo Site in Chamdo, Tibet, dating back about 4,500 years, over 50 pieces of Neolithic ornaments have been discovered, including hairpins, rings, earrings, beads, necklaces, bracelets, shell ornaments, plaques, and pendants, made from materials such as stone, jade, bone, and shell. Most of these ancient ornaments were finely polished and exquisitely crafted. These bodily decorations created by the ancient ancestors displayed, from the very beginning, diversity and richness in material, shape, patterns, and craftsmanship techniques, along with distinct regional characteristics.

　　Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, and Xinjiang are historical regions where Tibetan tribes formed and thrived. In the Hami region near the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, well-preserved mummies unearthed from ancient public cemeteries date back about 3,000 years. The basic features of the ancient corpses’ attire are very similar to the clothing of the Kham Tibetan people today — for example, hair styled in many braids, with male corpses often wearing felt hats, wool or leather coats, long leather pants, and woolen robes; they wore long leather boots with woolen leg wraps outside the boot shafts; and a pouch was tied at the waist, accompanied by small bronze knives. Female corpses wore woolen robes with a belt around the waist and long leather boots with woolen leg wraps. Small bronze ornaments were attached to the boots, and the various woolen fabrics were brightly colored, mostly arranged in large and small squares and colored stripes of red, green, brown, and black, which were very attractive and tasteful.

　　In painted bricks unearthed from ancient tombs in Ping’an County, Qinghai, the designs include six patterns: feasting, armored cavalry, immortals, strongmen, and divine horses. Among them, the feasting figures had one bare arm — a custom still retained by today’s Kham Tibetans. This suggests that as early as the 11th century BC, the ancient Tibetan ancestors' attire already possessed the basic structural features of modern Kham Tibetan clothing.

　　According to historical records: "The women of the Eastern Kingdom of Women (in the Kham region) all wore their hair loose, shoes made of leather, and the queen wore a skirt of blue woolen damask, a tunic collar, and a blue robe draped over her shoulders, with sleeves trailing on the ground. In winter, she wore lambskin garments decorated with embroidered brocade."

　　Figures depicted in the rock paintings found in northern Tibet also include many with braided hair or long, flowing hair "pulled back," with most characters wearing a type of fur robe-like skirted garment. All of these closely resemble the local geography and humanistic features recorded in literature.

　　At the Liuwan Cemetery in Ledu, Qinghai, a painted pottery boot was also unearthed, standing 11.6 cm tall with a sole length of 14.3 cm. The ceramic boot is hollow inside, round in shape, made of coarse red pottery with a red surface painted in black. The joint between the boot upper and sole is slightly concave inward, with the sole being pointed at the front and flat at the back. The boot shaft is adorned with symmetrical double-line scroll patterns, and the boot trim features double-line band patterns and triangular designs. The lines are smooth and the patterns are clear. The shape is similar to modern Tibetan-style boots, indicating that as early as 3,000 years ago during the Bronze Age, the ancestors of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau already knew how to make and wear long boots with plateau-specific features that provided cold protection and warmth, as well as possessing the aesthetic ability to decorate and beautify their forms.

　　In the early Tubo period, the hairstyles and facial decorations of the Tibetan people inherited some customs from primitive society. For example, "zhuamian" (red-painted face) refers to the practice among northern Tibetan grassland herders of applying a reddish mineral pigment (some sources say it was also animal blood) to their faces. This served to protect against sunburn, frostbite, wind, and snow, nourished the skin, and at the same time served as a form of beauty and carried religious connotations. The Tubo people regarded this custom as beautiful. Due to the vast territory of Tubo at the time, regional costume cultures developed by widely absorbing and integrating cultural strengths from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and surrounding areas, resulting in significant differences in clothing styles across regions. These were mainly reflected in the variations among the costumes of tribes in the northeastern part of the Tibetan region, such as the Dongnu, Fuguo, and Tangut tribes.