In addition to bolts of cloth, court robes were often sent from China to Tibet in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries where they were refitted into a style of dress worn by lay aristocrats. Close examination of the dragons on the upper part of this robe reveals that parts of their bodies do not match precisely, which suggests that this garment was either made from a larger one or pieced together from different robes. Such reworking illustrates the value awarded to Chinese textiles in Tibet at the time.