Lzh Mu Bi Vb Pc 180Jewellery
Pāli / Sanskrit:Itthālaṅkāra
Save your scripture progress
Create a free account to save scriptures, track progress, and continue your daily learning path.
Explanation of the Itthālaṅkāra Sutta (Women’s Adornment)
Background
The Itthālaṅkāra Sutta (Women’s Adornment) belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka, specifically the Pāṭimokkha Saṃvarabhaṇḍa section, the rules of offense (pācittiya) for the whole community of monks and nuns. These are practical teachings given by the Buddha to protect the clarity of the community of monks and nuns, especially in the context of the life of practice in India during the Buddha’s time.
The Vinaya Piṭaka in general is not a set of stories or parables, but a detailed body of law formed through specific situations. Each training rule (sikkhāpada) arises from some event, when the Buddha saw disciples committing a violation and then laid down a prohibition to preserve virtuous conduct. The Itthālaṅkāra Sutta also follows this structure, relating to the issue of nuns adorning the body.
In the Theravāda Vinaya Piṭaka, matters related to adornment are not merely aesthetic or material questions, but directly express the principles of diligence, humility, and detachment (virāga), three core elements in Buddhist ethics.
Main Content
This discourse concerns monks and nuns wearing ornaments such as bracelets, necklaces, or other jewelry on the body. According to the Vinaya Piṭaka, this is considered a pācittiya offense, an offense requiring confession but not amounting to a grave violation.
The reason the Buddha established this training rule was not because jewelry is evil, but because it conflicts with what female monastics should avoid, things that discourage single-mindedness. Jewelry draws attention and creates conditions for the mind to become entangled in outward appearance rather than focused on inner practice. It also easily gives rise to comments or comparisons, from which pride, greed, and ignorance, the three poisons of human beings, may arise.
The prohibitions in the Vinaya Piṭaka related to adornment include: not wearing gold, silver, or precious metals; not applying cosmetics or beautifying the eyebrows and hair in an additional way to attract attention.
🌏 The Buddhist canon is vast — some sūtras (such as comparative Vinaya across schools, or untranslated Tibetan-canon texts) have to this day NEVER been translated into Vietnamese or English by anyone, scholars included. Rather than leave it blank, Inti AI offers a FAITHFUL summary grounded in the tradition — from the sūtra's title, origin and essence — so you can still reach this rare part of the treasury. Whenever an original translation exists, the app shows the original first.
Translations belong to the translator/source credited above. The bilingual compilation, presentation, and AI translations compiled by Inti are © Inti Foundation. Please attribute when quoting; do not bulk-copy or use commercially without permission.