One of the more common regulations is haircut: in Buddhism, monks shave their heads clean to symbolize cutting ties with the secular world. In medieval times, the same applied to Catholic monks, except it was a unique cut where only the top of their scalps are shaved and the edges left untouched.
The act of creating that spot is also known as tonsure. In Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, hair is often considered a vanity. Men entering a religious order choose a tonsure as a way of denouncing the vanity and worldly ways represented by hair.
Tonsure can also refer to the secular practice of shaving all or part of the scalp to show support or sympathy, or to designate mourning. Current usage more generally refers to cutting or shaving for monks, devotees, or mystics of any religion as a symbol of their renunciation of worldly fashion and esteem.
Sometimes referred to as the 'monastic crown', the haircut has come to symbolise religious devotion and the rejection of worldly possessions. As hair has historically been associated with sexuality and eroticism, the haircut also confirms the vow of celibacy taken by monks.
Shaving the head is one of the rules the Buddha laid down for his monks and nuns. It is one of the key indicators of renunciation showing that a person has given up ordinary life and will live outside of social conventions.
Head Shaving Today
Most Buddhist nuns and monks today follow the Vinaya rules about hair. Practices do vary somewhat from one school to another, but the monastic ordination ceremonies of all schools of Buddhism include head shaving.
Only Buddhist monks and nuns are supposed to shave their heads. Shaving of heads is required for those who want to renounce worldly comforts and enter the priesthood. Lay-Buddhists do not have such restrictions in their personal lives as long as they conduct themselves in accordance with Buddha's teaching.
There are about 270 female monks across Thailand and they were all ordained abroad, Dhammananda said, adding that her monastery houses seven of them. In contrast, Thailand has more than 250,000 male monks.
Religions such as Orthodox Judaism, Rastafarianism, and Sikhism all prohibit haircuts, the removal of facial hair, or a combination of the two due to beliefs that hair is sacred or a gift from God.
It's an important custom in Hinduism, as the ritual of shaving one's head allows you to be closer to God, demonstrating a total submission, whereby all of your arrogance and vanity has been removed. The final ceremonial haircut takes place when a family member dies.
It is a sacred color in many Eastern religions. Hindu and Buddhist monks wear orange robes, and in Hinduism, orange represents fire and therefore purity; impurities are burned in fire.
It was meant to ensure that their thoughts did not become entangled in the preoccupations of the world outside the cloister, thereby distracting them from their lives of prayerful contemplation and quest for spiritual salvation – the core purpose of the monastic life.
Vanity, hygiene and simplicity were the main motivations behind the Egyptian's obsession for being clean-shaven, with High Priests even opting for full-body shaves. Initially, tweezers were used to pull hair, or alternatively, waxing and sugaring.
From a young age, Shaolin students start poking trees and wood planks to strengthen their fingers. As their training progresses, they start practicing hard strikes. Every finger on both hands must be trained to produce large bursts of strength.
To avoid this, they must shave their heads completely. This Mundan ritual is also a mark of shedding their ego. When the elderly member is dead, the gap created by their absence might make them arrogant and mundan reminds them that they ought to exhibit their obedience giving off their egoistic tendency.
The practice of clerical tonsure was abandoned by the Reformers. It was abolished in the Roman Catholic Church in 1972 by Paul VI. The monastic tonsure is itself becoming rare as monks become more involved in outside activities.
Issuing the fatwa, the department has said that Islam does not permit hair cut and eye-brow threading and if a woman does this, it is against Islam. "This is included in the list of ten prohibitions for women, because hair is considered the beauty if women.
A number of scholars used this hadith as the basis for his statement that refraining from cutting your hair and nails forms part of the completion of the sacrificial rite of the Qurbani (sacrifice). Find out more information on Qurbani rules and where to make your Qurbani donation.
In Sikhism, cutting your hair is not allowed. The idea is that you shouldn't change God's image of you. However, my experience has taught me that forcing a religion onto your child will only push them away. It's important for kids to explore themselves and who they want to be.
Monks, for example, are not allowed to get married nor have children. They leave their family forever and get a new family in the monastery.
Buddhist partici- pants explained that their teachings focus on seeing how suffering is created and cured. Attachments give rise to suffering, so advancement in the spiritual life requires letting go of one's attachments. Attachment to desires, among which are sexual desires, is a hindrance to spiritual progress.
The buddhist monk's daily schedule consists of going on alms round in the village, doing our chores as a mindfulness practice, meditation, and chanting. The monk's life is small paced and we have time to reflect and contemplate.
The body and the mind should be kept clean in order to reach the final aim of true understanding. Thus cutting and shaving the hair represent a sort of determination to keep the body and the mind clean and then to attain enlightenment and save all beings.
One of the most significant changes that Gregorio VII brought was the standardized haircut for monks. To symbolize the giving of their lives to God, monks were to mimic Saint Paul's hair. Saint Paul was said to be a bald man; which meant that every monk was to shave their head clean.