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Dhammavaro pours bark from the madrone tree into a pot of boiling water, where it will "steep" and color the liquid just like tea leaves brewing in a tea cup. -
After straining the madrone bark, Dhammavavro moves the weak dye liquid to another pot, where it will be boiled and reduced. To stay on schedule, he spent four nights' vigil in a cold basement retrofitted with dyeing equipment. -
Dhammavavro separates madrone bark from the initial, weak dye solution before moving it to the reduction bath. -
Dhammavavro stirs madrone bark in the steeping pot as Ajahn Ñaniko looks on. -
Dhammavaro wears heavy gloves to manipulate cloth soaking in the boiling reduction bath, which helps to saturate the garment with dye. Beginning with two 40-gallon barrels of madrone bark, the resulting dye would fill only a single, 10-gallon pot. -
Dhammavavro pulls his jiworn from the final dye solution, where it soaked for two hours. The number and duration of baths determine color density and uniformity in a robe - often cloth must be saturated in dye many times for a rich and even color. -
Dye drips from Dhammavavro's arm as he hangs his jiworn from a clothesline outside the monks' utility building. -
In a process developed at the time of the Buddha, a robe will be flipped in three steps so the natural dye settles evenly on the cloth. This rotation also prevents "racing stripes" as dye drips down the sides. -
The robe is refolded over the clothesline in the second stage of flipping to avoid drip marks and ensure even color saturation. -
In the third stage of flipping, the dye is massaged into the cloth with the hands so that it remains in the center of the robe. -
Dressed in his triple robe set, Dhammavaro, center, receives his monk ordination from Luang Por Pasanno in the presence of the Abhayagiri monastic community on May 17, 2020. -
With his head freshly-shaved and robes newly-dyed, Dhammavaro prepares to approach his Preceptor with his requisites and an offering of gifts while his parents Don and Terri look on. -
Newly-ordained monk Tan Dhammavaro bows to Luang Por Pasanno, his Preceptor. -
Ven. Dhammavaro poses with his triple robe set - the sabong at his waist, the jiworn across his upper body, the sanghati over his left shoulder. Multiple dyeings yielded a rich brown color distinct to madrone trees and thus unique among Buddhist monks. -
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