[Buddha-l] Nakedness

[Dan Lusthaus]

Joy,

Your insight is on target. There was exactly that sort of "scandal" when
Buddhist monks first entered China. While some ascetics in India, such as
the Jains, were either naked or close to it, Buddha had promoted a "middle
way" between nakedness and being clothed, so that the vinaya stipulated that
one shoulder (but not the other) should be exposed. When monks arrived in
China with their "exposed" shoulders, the uptight Chinese accused them of
wandering about "naked" and shameless, threatening family values and all
proper civilized codes of decency. Result? Buddhist monks "revised" the
vinaya to allow the covering of both shoulders, which is how clergy in East
Asia continues to dress into the present. In Tibet, later, the weather was
also a contributing factor to this modification (straw sandals without socks
and exposed shoulders are not the best way to survive a Tibetan winter).

Dan Lusthaus