- A robe soaks in the mordant bath, where tone begins to appear on the cloth.
- After daily chores and the midday meal, Dhammavaro sews his three robes. The “triple set”consists of the sabong - a robe worn at the waist; the jiworn - an outer robe covering the body; and the sanghati - a double-layered robe for formal occasions.
- After sewing is complete, Dhammavaro washes the sanghati with soap and water - this removes any oil his fingers may have left on the garment so that dye will hold to the cloth.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 applies mordant to a robe alongside Ajahn Ñaniko, the abbot of Abhayagiri, who dyed a robe at the same time. It's common for a novice to have dedicated help through this process from a more senior monk.
- 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.
- 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.
- Doubly-thick, the sanghati requires one to sew four layers at once in a garment sized approximately 300 x 200 centimeters.
- 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.
- Dye drips from Dhammavavro's arm as he hangs his jiworn from a clothesline outside the monks' utility building.
- Dye for monks' robes often comes from natural sources - in Thailand, monks use the heartwood of the local jackfruit tree. Dhammavaro collected bark from the native madrone tree and dyed his robes at the monks' utility building, pictured here.
- Familiarity with an industrial sewing machine can take time - foot and hand coordination is required to add stitches and maneuver the cloth successfully.