Saga On the relationship between the B'omarr Order and the Hutts

In the films, our first introduction to the B'omarr Order and the Hutts is Return of the Jedi. Jabba lives in a palace that the B'omarr monks, who built the palace, use as a monastery. The B'omarr believed that to achieve enlightenment they had to remove their minds from their physical body, and members aspire to eventually have their brains put in a jar. Sometimes, said jar is attached to a spider droid, allowing the monk to move around.

Now, this whole thing seems somewhat strange. If the monks are such non-materialists, why can their monastery be converted so easily into a lavish palace? Jabba's palace is huge. What do they need all that space for? And if they wish to shed their physical body, why use spider droids? Wouldn't that basically be a prosthetic body? Now I assume the droids are only used out of necessity and the rest of the monks' time is spent on shelves, and the droid is programmed to translate their telepathic transmissions into speech so that they can communicate with non-monks. That still doesn't answer the question of why they need such spacious accommodations for their worship. How many embodied members does the order have? And why don't they object, as non-materialists, to their place of worship being converted into a wealthy hedonist's personal residence? Sure, brain jars are maintenance probably don't mind sharing a living space with a palace entourage, but surely the embodied monks would have something to say about their sacred space being occupied. Why build a monastery if you aren't going to use it?

Now, maybe this is just EU writers going wild. Jabba's palace was originally a monastery and the monks walk around on spider legs. Why not? It's the Clone Wars movie that makes things a little more interesting.



When Jabba's son is kidnapped, he is taken to an abandoned B'omarr monastery on Teth. Though perhaps smaller than Jabba's palace, the architectural similarities are undeniable. This is natural since it was built by the same order. But intriguingly, this monastery contains:

• a prison level
• a throne room
• with a decorative floor grate
• underneath which, according to a deleted scene, there is also a rancor

What would these be used for originally in a monastery, and why, if they are modifications, would whoever took over this monastery make the exact same modifications as Jabba? Whoever has since abandoned this monastery had very similar tastes.



And so, apparently, does Ziro, because even though his palace is almost certainly not a former B'omarr monastery, it's certainly evocative of one. The motif of cylinders capped with discs and domes is present in all three structures. Why would Ziro construct his palace in a manner reminiscent, at least from the outside face, of a B'omarr monastery?

I actually think I have an answer. I remembered halfway through writing this that Papa the Hutt, Jabba the Hutt's grandfather and Ziro's father, is buried on Teth. So perhaps the monastery belongs to Papa. Since he apparently walked out on his wife and didn't tell her where he went, perhaps he was the one who forcibly evicted the B'omarr monks from their monastery on Teth. Then, when he himself died, his servants buried him and either abandoned the monastery or were wiped out by the Separatists' battle droids when Dooku's forces captured it and used it to hold Rotta prisoner. The other connections account to inherited taste. Hutts taking over B'omarr monasteries is likely not unusual if, as Anakin says, smugglers and other criminals make a habit of forcibly converting them into personal retreats, so it makes sense that Jabba would find a B'omarr monastery attractive. If Jabba shared an affinity for rancor pits with his grandfather, it makes sense he would install one at his palace just as Papa would install one at his hideaway on Teth (though how said pit would get very much use is a mystery, and somehow the rancor is still alive even after the palace has been abandoned?) And Ziro, who knows where his father went, may have decided to build his palace in the same style as his father's hideout. And thus the pieces fall into place.

The only question that remains is what exactly B'omarr monasteries are for. What is the purpose of each room? Why is it spacious enough to accommodate the extravagant tastes of a Hutt if the religion is about forgoing the need for physical comfort and pleasures? What does B'omarr worship entail? Those are questions absolutely ripe for discussion since we have zero clues as to the answers. I'm desperately curious to see a piece of Star Wars media that shows a B'omarr monastery being used for its intended purpose as an abbey. What do you think it would be like?