It ' s a violation of certain rules to impersonate a monk . But the Buddha occasionally suggested certain people shave their heads and don the saffron robe to practice at home , if the homeless life wasn ' t effective . So I think in cases like Halloween , where it ' s obvious the person isn ' t a monk or nun , there ' s no problem and nothing wrong . This situation is tougher . For one thing , dressing up as another race is never okay . That ' s offensive for wholly different reasons . I assume you meant different cultures , not races . Cause . fuck , dude . Everyone should find dressing up as other races offensive . Personally , I think it ' s in very poor taste to wear the saffron robes , unless you did a shit job and no one can tell what you are . Or you dressed like Aang , the Avatar , cause that ' s a different thing . But if they were doing different cultures , they could ' ve picked something other than monksnuns . Edit the bigger concern , as I mentioned in another post , is karma . Having such disrespect for the sangha is very unskillful and these actions lead to qualities of mind that ultimately perpetuate the problems . Impersonating a monk or nun will result in a birth in hell . This situation isn ' t as strong as that , but the results of these actions could very easily result in a hellish existence . For compassion ' s sake , we shouldn ' t be offended , but we should be concerned and discourage it .