Chuapa—the Traditional Tibetan dress

Just like any other influences of geographical condition on the culture and living style of Tibetans, the traditional costume of Tibet was designed in such a way to fight extreme weather conditions on the plateau.
Before the cotton and woollen dresses become prevalent in Tibet, most of the Tibetans, especially in the nomadic regions wear huge robe made by stitching animals’ furs together. This trend still can be seen in several parts of Tibet.

The traditional dress for Tibetans is known as Chupa, a seemingly oversized robe with elongated sleeves. There are both male as well as female versions of Chupa, which look different in their own ways.

Male Chupa is caught up at the waist by a belt usually made up of either wool or silk, in this way its skirts reach up the knees, with the fold so formed at the upper part is made like a huge pock to store various stuff. This being the basics and there are many differences in the details of styles based on local custom. For example, people from Amdo province of Tibet usually belt the Chupa lower on the hips rather than on the waist. And the people from Kham usually prefer wearing much large Chupa than their built. Dark coloured Chupa is preferred by most of the people.

The female version of Chupa is usually more colourful than their counterparts. Here the length of Chupa is down to the ankles. The most distinct part of female Chupa is the colourful apron that is worn on the top of Chupa. Tibetan women love apron with brightly coloured horizon stripes. But remember that only the married women will be wearing this type of apron.

People wear trousers, vests, shirts underneath the Chupa, and sometimes jackets are worn on top of the Chupa to stay warm against the cold. Trousers, traditionally made up of wool, are tucked into knee-high Tibetan woollen boots with leather sole.

Most of the Chupas worn during winter are woollen, or in case of nomads they wear sheepskin Chupa. But nowadays wearing animal skins are so much discouraged that many people switch to a certain type of artificial warm and hairy fabric looking similar to sheepskin.

During summer, people wear Chupa with lighter materials such textiles. There is great adoration among Tibetans for high-quality fabric imported from India for making their summer Chupa.

However, with growing erosion in the Tibetan culture caused by various factors, many of the Tibetans are now switching to western dresses, especially the younger generations.