The Headwear of Tibetan People

Brief Introduction

The Tibetan people enjoy dressing up, as well as all the beautiful things. In the long history, there were the colorful and lively workmanship of the wall paintings, carved beams and Buddha statues, in which we may find expressions of the persistent pursuit of beauty of Tibetan People. All the masterpieces are the crystallization of inventive mind, beauty of mind as well as the extraordinary intelligence, leading to the mixed feelings and praises of lives. Aparting from the spiritual beauty, what display to people are the beauty in life. The costume and headwear make the aesthetic taste of locality, symbolizing the different styles of dressing of Tibetan People. What's more, the headwear is the adornment most of local color. The representative ones are the Northern Tibet, Middle Tibet, Southern Tibet and Eastern Tibet.

The Headwear of Northern Tibet

In Northern Tibet, the married women usually divide the hair from the middle, and on each side, many long and thin plaits are weaved. At the dividing area of the forehead, gemstones of coral and jadeite are bunched on the plaits of both sides. At the back side of the head, a thicker plait is weaved, and decorated with silver circles of different sizes, looking nice, but this kind of hair style is a little bit wasting time and energy. In the winter, the style is hidden by the hats of fox fur and lambskin or scarf, partly hidden and partly visible. In Northern Tibet, the fox fur hat is a hat that goes with formal dress, and it is inevitable to wear it on the wedding ceremony, party or grand banquet.

The Headwear of Southern Tibet

Nowadays, women of Southern Tibet usually weave two plaits, and at the middle of the plaits, the hair decoration called Zhaxiu is weaved together with the hair. The Zhaxiu is made up of three strings with different colors, and each string is made of many thinner strings with the same color. This kind of plait is usually twisted at the top of the head, looking beautiful. The urban women are more fashionable, with the traditional costume fade-out, and the hair style various.

The Headwear of Eastern Tibet

There is much difference between the headwear of Tibet women of the past and now. In the past, many girls of nobility or rich family wore luxurious headwear, which was called parchu in Tibetan language. Parchu is typical, in the shape of Ren, with the branching side ahead and being fixed at the top of the head. The Parchu is decorated with coral, agate, jadeite and pearl. The fragmentary decorate items are with various names, so it would cost you some time to memorize all of them. Nowadays, this kind of headwear is not worn often, some have selled it, or some collect it. Sometimes, you may see this kind of gorgeous headwear in the Tibetan opera, dances and films, but they are only the lifelike stage property. As for the unmarried girls, they used to weave one plait, but now, there is little difference and distinction. Comparing with the other areas of Eastern Tibet, the headwear of Kham is not sumptuous at all, but lovely and hard in carding. When the girl is preparing for her dowry, she should weave the plaits according to her age, and at the dividing place, along the hair, an opal is bunched between two corals and fixed at the top. Of course, the bigger the coral and opal are, the better. The rich families like the coral with bright color, mellow and full shape and big ideotype. As for the opal, they prefer the ocellus and black ones.