- 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.
- 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.
- The robe is refolded over the clothesline in the second stage of flipping to avoid drip marks and ensure even color saturation.
- The patchwork of connected squares and rectangles reflected in the design of a monk's robe was the brainchild of the Buddha himself, who instructed his assistant to sew a prototype that evoked the pattern of rice paddy fields in Magadha, India.
- Newly-ordained monk Tan Dhammavaro bows to Luang Por Pasanno, his Preceptor.
- 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.
- In the first stage of dyeing, the cloth is soaked in mordant - a solution which will help dye adhere to the garment. After rinsing off excess mordant, the cloth has a slight coloration, seen here.
- 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.
- Hundreds of lines must be sewn and errant stitches picked out by hand and then sewn again until the result is satisfactory. Novice monks may have little familiarity with sewing, and the robe-making process represents a trial-and-error process.
- Having sewed and dyed a formal robe, novice Dhammavaro hangs the cloth to dry in front of a skeleton used for contemplation. A candidate for monkhood at Abhayagiri must sew and dye a set of three robes before his ordination ceremony.
- Familiarity with an industrial sewing machine can take time - foot and hand coordination is required to add stitches and maneuver the cloth successfully.
- 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.
- Dye drips from Dhammavavro's arm as he hangs his jiworn from a clothesline outside the monks' utility building.
- 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.
- Doubly-thick, the sanghati requires one to sew four layers at once in a garment sized approximately 300 x 200 centimeters.