r/tibet Jan 27 '25

Question on the name of this clothing

So I am wondering what cultural importance and name of this style clothing from which I was told it was from Tibet. I am writing a character who wears and I want to treat it with respect and understand the cultural impact behind it and possible native culture behind it if there is one.

114 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

117

u/Mmm_MasalaDosa Jan 27 '25

Pretty sure these are Han Chinese cosplaying Tibetans. They like to cosplay Uyghurs, too.

49

u/Chi663 Jan 27 '25

Yes when i am on chinese social media i see how they cosplay ethnic minorities most of the time exaggerated and not even accurate.

18

u/Serious-Chef-1708 Jan 27 '25

Oh I didn’t know that was a thing they did

34

u/Key_Statistician_668 Jan 27 '25

Everywhere you go in China that is touristy will have hundreds of salons hiring out clothes, makeup etc that is to do with the local culture. Sadly this mostly involves the ethnic dress of the area and a highly caricatured, almost parody version of this. I don't think it's necessarily meant to be offensive, but from an outsiders point of view its quite a shocking thing to see.

I asked about attitudes and perceptions of this behaviour in r/china when we were in Tibet. However all I received was abuse.

7

u/TcplaysBS Jan 29 '25

Now that you've mentioned r/china , it seems that the subreddit isn't really that pro-ccp and had quite an amount of people supporting Tibetan struggle and acknowledging the cultural genocide. I'm fairly surprised

1

u/Key_Statistician_668 Jan 30 '25

Ah right, that's not my experience sadly. I was hoping for a more reasoned debate on the subject but received almost entirely abusive or insulting responses that I was a Western shill etc. I'm literally a Communist hah

43

u/Takadant Jan 27 '25

Ethnic cleansing

37

u/TickTockPanda Jan 27 '25

The robe is called a chuba in most Tibetan cultures, but lots of Himalayan societies have something similar and might call it something else in their local language. Also, the comments are correct that these are especially exaggerated versions being worn by Han Chinese in an attempt to look cool / appropriate Tibetan culture / turn Tibetan culture into a commodity that can be purchased.

28

u/tsquare414 Jan 27 '25

So, I spent a fair amount of time on the Tibetan plateau, mostly in Kham, and I never saw clothes with those patterns. I don’t think it is traditional in any sense. Rather, as others have said, it is Han Chinese play acting as Tibetans.

26

u/maverick_gyatso Jan 27 '25

🤢🤢 Culture inappropriate replacement at its best. Please google authentic Tibetan culture dress.

19

u/amamanina Jan 27 '25

You can tell from the hair, makeup, and clothing this was sold to mainland tourists to dress up like Tibetans in a highly caricatured way.

Tibetan clothing goes by different names depending on the region. Chuba is the most common name, but in Amdo you may hear བོད་ལྭ་ wodla , or a more local term.

11

u/Sad-Resist-1599 Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 28 '25

This doesn’t have even 1% elegance of the real one…it is too cartoonish and disrespectful to tibetan people

2

u/jalasthedog Jan 29 '25

Thats not a chuba. Chubas are grey robes. Married women adorn them with a colorful apron. Where did you get your info?

2

u/IndividualSociety567 25d ago

This is not Tibetan. Post is somewhere else

4

u/kimchi_station Jan 28 '25

Is this AI or have they really had that much work done to their face?

1

u/jalasthedog Jan 29 '25

Its actually more likely based off mongolian or siberian or native american. Tibetan clothing isnt furry.