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Showing posts from January, 2023

Kabney (ceremonial scarves) in Bhutan

  Kabney:  tradition of wearing ceremonial scarves in Bhutan  Introduction   The origin of  Kabney  dates back to the time of Lord Buddha and also the 7 th  Century saint  Padma Sambhava  was said to have given the white scarves to be worn by commoners during all the religious ceremonies.  The distinction and creation of  Kabneys  for cabinet,  nyikelm  and  Gups  were made during the great rein of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel in the 16 th  Century when he unified and founded the of Nation state in Bhutan.  Further with an establishment of Monarchy in the 20 th  Century, the various scarves for cabinet minister and their deputies ( བློན་པོ་ལྷན་རྒྱས་ གོང་འོག ),  Nyikelms  ( གཉིས་སྐལམ ) ,  Chip   Zhem  ( ཆིབས་བཞོནམ  traditional title for the lowest ranked officer ) and  Rabjams ( རབ་འབྱམས )  were introduced as post-based scarves.  With an onset of 21 st  century, the tradition of  kabney  evolved further in the phase of modernization and scarves for  Dzongda ( རྫོང་བདག ),  Drangpon ( དྲང་ད