The mendicant saffron robe: origin and significance

 [Translator’s notes: The humble monk’s robe was worn historically by the Buddha and his disciples; and now all the Buddhist monks are sporting it in various shades of reddish-yellow, saffron or ochre, grayish to blue, and to pitch black colors everywhere around the world. It is called Kesa in Japanese, Casa in Cantonese, Cà-sa in Vietnamese, has the root word kasaya in Sanskrit. For this article we will refer to it as Casa.]