Hada (哈达 Hada)

Hada, a long piece of silk used by the Tibetans and some Mongols as gift when greeting people, worshipping celestial beings, and in daily person-to-person contacts.

According to the book Tibetan Customs and Habits by the Tibetan scholar Chilai Qoizhag, hada was invented by the Han people before it found its way to Tibet. During the Yuan Dynasty, when the Tibetan Sakya King, Phags-pa, returned to Tibetan after meeting Hublai, the founding emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, he brought a piece of hada that was inscribed with parrerns of the Great Wall on both ends and the four Chinese characters that mean “good luck”.

Hada is of different lengths, but generally it is 2 metres long and 30cm wide. Most of it is fashioned out of white silk, because white means purity. There are also ones made from homespun. Red, yellow and light blue hada are made of fine silk fabrics and embroidered with Buddhist statues, Sanskrit messages, lotus flower and auspicious clouds, to be used for occasions of the highest grades.

When worshiping Buddhist statues, greeting or bidding farewell to friends, or holding weddings or funerals, the Tiberans show their respects and affection to their friends or beloved ones with hada. Whenever they are on a trip they make it a point to bring along several pieces of hada to be given to friends or relatives. Tiny pieces of hada are attached to letters as a way of good will.

The Tibetans are very etiquette conscious when presenting hada. When the recipient is an elderly, they would bend their body and hold hada above their head before presenting it to the recipient's seat or feet. The ritual is much simpler between peers—you simply thrust the hada to the recipient's hand. When a hada is presented to member of the younger's neck, and the youngster is supposed to bend his body to show gratitude.