Kabney: tradition of wearing ceremonial scarves in Bhutan
Introduction
The origin of Kabney dates back to the time of Lord Buddha and also the 7th 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 16th Century when he unified and founded the of Nation state in Bhutan.
Further with an establishment of Monarchy in the 20th 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 21st century, the tradition of kabney evolved further in the phase of modernization and scarves for Dzongda(རྫོང་བདག), Drangpon(དྲང་དཔོན) and Members of Parliament(ཆེ་བསྟོད་ཅན་གི་འཐུས་མི་) were instituted. In addition, the senior bureaucrats or the executives such as government secretaries, constitutional post bearers, zimpons (Chamberlains), and Thompons wear kabney and Patang (ceremonial sword) based on their rank and entitlement. Women post holders are adorned with Gentag in place of patang with same-colored scarves but in smaller sizes compared to the one worn by their male counterparts. In general, the men wear white kabneys with fringes and women wear rachus with simple designs and rachu popularly known as Ada Rachu.
The Article 2 of the Constitution of Kingdom of Bhutan states that, “The Druk Gyalpo, in exercise of His Royal Prerogatives, may: Award titles, decorations, dar for Lhengye and Nyi-Kyelma in accordance with tradition and custom”.
Kabney symbolizes reverence one display to the post holders, elders and lamas (religious figure). Scarves are usually put on while visiting Dzongs(forts), government offices,Monastries and temples. It is also worn during religious ceremonies and other official gatherings. It is also worn while paying a visit to the post bearers as a symbol of respect.
In the past during emergencies a kabney called NyaRay was also used. This type of scarf was also worn by yoga/meditation practitioner called yogi (རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ) such as the Great Yogi Milarepa. Today, armed personnel wear such kabneys when they wear traditional attire based on their rank and entitlement.
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| Jetsun Milarepa |
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| Bhutanese Yogi |
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| Officers from RBP & RBA |
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| His Majesty the King & Ambassador Major General Vetsop Namgyel |
Types of Kabney in Bhutan
His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen
Saffron/yellow is symbol of Kings and the Chief abbots in Bhutan. Her Majesty the Queen, wear embroidered scarf with detailed designs adorned on it. The scarves are often seen in yellowish and mostly red.
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| His Majesty the King & Her Majesty The Gyaltsuen |
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| His Majesty the King, His Majesty the 4th King & His Holiness the Je Khenpo |
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| His Majesty the 3rd Druk Gyalpo |
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| Her Majesty The Gyaltsuen & Her Majesty the Queen Mother |
Chotse Penlop/Trongsa Penlop
The scarf of Penlop is called LungSer (ལུང་གསེར) which appear slight orange and yellowish in color. His Majesty the King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck assumed the post of Trongsa Penlop(Chhoetse Penlop) on October 21, 2004 prior to his ascendancy to the golden throne in 2006.
During the enthronement of crown prince Jigme Singye Wangchuck as the Trongsa Penlop in 1972, a color between yellow and orange had been chosen as the scarf for the Chotse Penlop.
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| His Majesty the King (Chotse Penlop) |
Royal Family
The princes wear dark orange scarves called TsheMar (ཚོས་མར) and Princess wear embroidered red scarves made out of silk with intricate designs.
Lungmar were given to the prince as the royal scarf during the reign of the 4th Druk Gyalpo. Although as per hearsay, the lungmar scarf is said to have designed during the time of the 3rd Druk Gyalpo yet the scarf was only granted during the time of 4th King to the princes in the Royal Family.
His Majesty the King conferred Lungmar scarves to the 2nd and 3rd democratically elected Prime Ministers of Bhutan.
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| HRH Prince Namgyal Wangchuck |
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| HRH Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck |
*His Majesty the King conferred Lungmar Scarves to Prime Ministers of Bhutan
Prime Minster and Cabinet members
Orange scarves are worn by Prime Ministers, Chief Justice of Bhutan, Speaker of the National Assembly, Chair Person of the National Council and Cabinet Ministers upon conferring dakyen by His Majesty the King. His Majesty also grant orange scarf to the Leader of Opposition.
In olden days the Dzongpons of Punakha, Wangdue and Thimphu regions and Penlops of Trongsa, Dagana and Paro were said to be equivalent to the rank of Minister.
As per the record, the 3rd Druk Gyalpo granted orange scarf to Haa Drungpa Jigme Dorji to appoint as Prime Minister which is considered to be first of its kind. After the establishment of 5 Ministries in 1968 by His Majesty to drive the efficient implementation of Five-Year Plans and also granted orange scarves to various Minsters such as Kidu Lyanpo Tamzhing Jagar, Tengay Lyanpo Prince Namgyel Wangchuck, Ngueltse Lyanpo (Finance Minister) Chogyel, Zabtog Lyanpo Sangay Peljor, Chidrel Lyanpo (Foregin Minster) Dawa Tshering and Kutshab Lyanpo Pema Wangchuk.
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| Scarf of Minister and equivalent post holders. |
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| His Majesty the King, Her Majesty the Queen, Prime Minister, Speaker of the NA and Cabinet Ministers of the 3rd Democratically elected government. |
Deputy Minister
The institution of Lodro Tsongde (བློ་གྲོས་ཚོགས་སྡེ Royal Advisory Council) in 1965 and appointment of Zhung KaLyon(གཞུང་བཀའ་བློན rank of Dy Minister) as chairman marked the creation of new style of wearing scarf unlike that of the minister. The latter has orange scarf with 7 folds or བདུན་བཀལ ) on the left shoulder.
Dasho Sangay Wangchug (to the right in picture below) took over as Deputy Chairman of the Privy Council following the retirement of Dasho Nado Rinchen and he was conferred the deputy minister’s scarf.
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| Dasho Barath Tamang (L) & Dasho Sangay Wangchug (R) |
NyiKelmas/ red scarf
Red Scarf (Bura Marp བཙོད་ཁམ) is awarded to the most promising individuals by His Majesty the King in recognition of extra ordinary service rendered to the TSA-WA-SUM. The red scarf is not only considered as a solera (gift) but also as an extra responsibility bestowed upon them by the King in the service of the Nation. The recipients of Bura Marp are officially called Dasho which translates to extraordinary person. The red scarf is also worn by the members of Royal family
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| His Majesty the King |
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| Bura Marp |
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| Governor of the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan. |
In ancient days, Dzongpons of Jakar (བྱ་དཀར Bumthang), Lhuentse ལྷུན་རྩེ, Zhongar (གཞོང་སྒར present Monggar), Trashigang (བཀྲིས་སྒང་), Trashiyangtse (བཀྲིས་ཡངས་རྩེ), Zhemgang (གཞལ་སྒང) Drukgyel (འབྲུག་རྒྱལ), Lingzhi (གླིང་གཞི), Gasa (མགར་ས), Jadrung Shar Nub Shar Diwangiri (རྒྱ་དྲུང་ཤར་ནུབ་ ཤར་དེ་ཝ་གི་རི), Nub Daling Kotri (ནུབ་ད་ལིང་ཀོཁྲི), and the Penlops of Chapcha (སྐྱབས་ཁྱ in Chukha), Dobje (རྡོར་སྦྱིས) and Bjarogang in Khotangkha (བྱ་རོག་སྒང་) were in the rank of Nyikelma. In addition, the Zimpons (གཟིམ་དཔོན) under three supreme Dzongpons (རྫོང་དཔོན་ཆེ་བ) and Chilas (སྤྱི་བླ་རྣམ་༣) and Droennyer (མགྲོན་གཉེར protocol officer), Nyerchen (གཉེར་ཆེན་ store keeper), dharpoen (དར་དཔོན), Tapoen (རྟ་དཔོན) were also equivalent to the rank of Nyikelma.
Members of Parliament (Chimmis)
People’s representative in Lodro Tshongdue wore the blue kabney. Blue scarves are worn by the members of Parliament and eminent members appointed by his Majesty the King. The 25 members of the upper house (National Council) and 47 members of Lower House (National Assembly) are entitled to the blue scarf. In the democratic setting, upon completion of parliamentary elections, the president of the elected party and identified cabinet members are conferred with orange scarves by His Majesty the King. However, if the cabinet member steps down, they wear the blue scarf. Upon completion of their tenure, the members switch to ordinary scarves unless they are conferred honorary scarves such as Lungmar or Red scarf by the King.
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| His Majesty the King, Her Majesty the Queen & Members of Upper House (National Council) of Bhutan. |
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| scarf of MPs of Bhutan |
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| Dasho Tshering Tobgay, the 2nd Elected Prime Minister of Bhutan with the 3rd Elected PM of Bhutan Lyonchen Dr. Lotey Tshering. Dasho Tsheirng Tobgay wearing Lungmar scarf coferred by HM the King |
Secretary
The post such as Dzongtshab and Trimtshab were renamed as Dzongda and Thrimpon during the reign of 4th Druk Gyalpo and they wear white scarf without fringes if they were not granted the Dyaken of Nyikelms. The custom to wear such scarves were instituted during the reign of His Majesty the 4th King.
Presently the white scarf without fringe is worn by the government secretaries, constitutional post bearers and heads of other autonomous agencies. In addition, the Zimpons (Chamberlien) and Zimpon Wogmas (Deputy Chamberlian), Changgaps and Ambassadors are also conferred with the same scarf.
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| Government Secretary |
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| scarf of secretary and equivalent post holders. |
Dzongda
The red scarf with white strip in the middle without fringe is the scarf of Dzongda (Chief executive of district). This scarf had been the scarf of deputy Dzongda (Dzongda Wogma) during the commencement 5th FYP in 1981. Later it was converted as the scarf of the dzongda and the present day dzongda is granted the same.
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| District Governor/ Dzongda |
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| scarf of Dzongda. |
Dzongrab/Drungpa/ Drangpon Rabjam
The commencement of 1st FYP also witnessed the renewal of post previously known as Chipzhoem (ཆིབས་བཞོནམ) to Rabjam (རབ་འབྱམས) and creation of new scarf for the post. The white scarf with red strip in the middle and two or one red strips toward both ends of the kabney had been created as a scarf for Rabjam and Dy Rajam.
The present-day scarves for Dzongrab, Drungpa and Drangpon Rabjam are actually created based on the kabneys of Rabjams. The previous two wear same scarf shown in the picture below. The white scarf with red stripes in the middle and 3 red strips toward periphery of the kabney is the kabney of Dzongrab and Drungpa.
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| Minister, Dzongrab & Drungpa |
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| scarf of Dzongrab and Drungpa. |
Drangpon
Green scarf is the symbol of Judicary which was created in 2005 and are conferred to the judges of the Supreme court, High court and District court.
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| Judge/Drangpon |
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In 2005 the white scarf with green strip in middle and three green stirps in the two ends of the kabney was created as scarf for Drangpon Rabjam and Drungkhag Drangpons. |
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| Chief Justice of Bhutan & Drangpon Rabjams |
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| scarf of Drangpon Rabjam. |
The present-day scarf of Thrompon (mayor) is actually designed and adopted as Chimi’s ( People’s representative སྤྱི་མི) scarf during the 73rd session of National Assembly in 1995. White scarf with blue strip in all the edges and red strip between two blue strips in the end of the kabney is worn by elected Thrompons. His Majesty the King has changed this scarf for Thrompon from 2017.
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| His Majesty the King & Mayor of Thimphu Municipality |
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| Mayors of Four major cities of Bhutan |
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| scarf of Mayor (Thrompon) |
Gup The Gup is one of the important figures to spearhead the functions of local government and they are entitled to Khamar Kabney which originated during the period of Zhadrung Ngawang Namghyel. The particular kabney was then worn by so called togden Garps (highly qualified masters). With change in time, the term Garpa also changed to Gup. | |
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| Representative (Gup) from each block (gewog) in Local Government |
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| scarf of Gup. |
In general the men in Bhutan wear white scarf and women wear scarf with simple designs. A scarf popularly known as Ada rachu originated form Athang community in Wangduephodrang district is one preferable scarf for women.
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| white scarf with fringes for commoner in Bhutan |
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| Bhutanese film Artists |
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| scarf for general Bhutanese women. |
The recipients of scarves such as Orange, Lungmar, Red and Blue conferred from the Golden Throne continue to wear the same scarves even after completing their tenure or service to the nation. The cabinet members and people’s representative prior to the inception of Democracy are few who continue to wear the same scarves throughout their lifetime. However, they are not entitled for patang (ceremonial sword) once they are out of service.
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| His Majesty the King with former cabinet ministers wearing orange scarves but they are without ceremonial sword. |
The Royal Privy council encourages individuals to voluntarily surrender with post based Kabney and Patang upon completion of tenure. As such there’s no concrete laws in place governing this agenda although several deliberations were made in Parliament. Quite often, people take this subject to social media platforms and diverse perceptions are poured online. Notwithstanding, few of the post bearers also come forward and surrender their kabney and patang to the Royal Civil Service Commission.
According to the Royal Privy Council, only individuals awarded with honorary kabney by His Majesty the King are entitled to wear them after their retirement and post-based kabney and patang should be surrendered compulsorily. Meanwhile, the person may wear the honorary kabney but are not entitled to use patang after retirement as it signifies authority. This is mainly to preserve the value oriented to the post-based recognitions.
It is said that upon the demise of honorary recipient, their gho, sword and scarf should be surrendered to the government following the tradition of Zhidu (གཞི་བསྡུ to collect). The custom of Zhidu mandates individuals bestowed with positional paraphernalia such as dzongdas, dzongrabs, drungpas, drangpons, drangrabs, parliamentarians and constitutional post holders to surrender their power and position symbolized through kabney and patang. Even the Royal Civil Service Commission released a notification reminding to relinquish the position based kabney and patang upon completion of term in the post.
According to the resolution of the 81st Session, “patang and kabneys awarded other than by His Majesty the King, especially designed to identify the position of the officers at the Dzongkhag administration, judicial courts and Dungkhags could be worn only during the tenure of service at that post and not when transferred to other ministries, departments or organisation”.
Reference:
https://kuenselonline.com/retiring-judge-ceremoniously-surrenders-kabney-and-patang/
https://www.dailybhutan.com/article/the-different-types-of-ceremonial-scarves-in-bhutan
https://auwrw2011.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/the-symbolism-of-kabney-in-bhutan/
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=661748265321453&set=pb.100044588552206.-2207520000.&type=3
https://twitter.com/tsheringtobgay/status/1060172303969861632
http://www.bbs.bt/news/?p=52275
https://kuenselonline.com/his-majesty-the-king-grants-dhar-3/
(Lecturer of RIM) http://www.rim.edu.bt/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/RIM-newsletter-October-2019-.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/KingJigmeKhesar/photos/his-majesty-awarded-goongloen-wogma-v-namgyal-the-druk-thuksey-award-for-exempla/490369503259/
https://twitter.com/damchodorji/status/826089624825012225
https://www.oshonews.com/2021/10/25/the-affairs-of-the-world/
https://www.facebook.com/yelhabhutantours/photos/a.595195357211460/3194905953907041/?type=3
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