So, why do Buddhists wear orange?
To add some depth to my question and fill this space a little I added the ‘So’ - you can ignore this and concentrate on the main question if you wish.
I read in a religious text about 10 years ago (I think it was The the world’s religions) that the color orange was the color of criminals and social outcasts and the buddhists would wear it so they would no longer be a part of society.
To make you hungry for Japanese food, of course.
I asked a monk this when I was in Thailand. He replied that originally they wore red, because it was most honored and most expensive. It always faded to orange, and they didn’t want to pay for red, so they began wearing orange in Thailand, at least.
I saw some Cambodian monks and they had on an auburn-sepia color. Maybe their robes faded too, but they made them darker so they went to red instead?
A nitpick clarification: Buddhists, as a whole, do not solely wear orange. Almost the whole sountry is classified as buddhist. Monks do wear drapy orange robes, everyday. Nuns [not female monks who traditionally had to follow 327 rules (none exist in Thailand anymore), but females who only have about 10 main rules to follow] wear the same type of drapy robe, but in white. They all shave their head and eyebrows, in Thailand.
I have a pic somewhere around here that a novice monk let me take of him in robes. . .