Apa Tani priests wear special woollen patchwork cloaks with fine border and middle designs. Each cloth is different with lozenge patterns as basic designs also for the waistcoats worn underneath and the head cloths held in position by a brass needle with red and blue beads stuck through the pigtail. A symbolic bamboo structure in the pigtail means the priest is ‘on duty’. Pic Courtesy/Kazuko Koike.