Han Buddha. Seven Centuries Ago, Clothing Research

The dress and personal adornment on the Buddha statue is one of the important factors that identify when, where, and at what cultural background the Buddha statue was made. The dress style was designed based on the Buddhism sutra while varying by continuously breaking through the rules and regulations. In this article we focus on the investigation on the dress and personal adornment on the Buddha statues located in the inhabiting area of Han nationality before the 7th century (specifically Han-Wei-Jin-Nanbei dynasty), which is also the critical period when the Chinese Buddha statues sprouted, developed and moved towards maturity. The research is carried out mainly on three aspects: first, analyze the Buddhism sutra and sum up the dress materials, dress styles and covering styles of the garments dressed on Buddha and his disciples, figure out the regulations on the dress and personal adornment of Buddha and his disciples defined in the Buddhism sutra and the dressing styles of the Buddha statues that disobey the rules, and partially research into the reason why this violation happened. Second, discuss the formation of the style of Buddha garments in India, the cradle land for Buddhist statue, as the basis for understanding that the dress heritage in those outside copies are carried on in the dress of the Buddha statues located in the inhabiting area of Han nationality and also some innovations are also carried out on them. Third, carry on a deepened analysis on Buddha dress in different stages in the inhabiting area of Han nationality, so as to clearly understand the origin, style, evolution and spread pattern of the dress on the Buddha statue in the inhabiting area of Han nationality before the 7th century.