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I confess, there is indeed some cherry picking on my part here. For the most part this is a cathartic late-night ramble which I regret losing sleep to make.
Another extreme example of Asceticism would be the Anchorites - mostly "Anchoresses" - who would voluntarily live alone in a church room with no escape, reading scripture and not a lot else until they died (well, they were already "dead to the world"). I find the idea of such a life very upsetting to even imagine!
However, I don't believe Christianity necessarily is Western. Certainly Christianity has influenced Western Civilisation, but that doesn't make early Christianity Western (sorry if you weren't suggesting that - just making sure) in the same way Judaism, which also influenced Western Civilsation, is not necessarily Western. I usually see these antimaterialist Christian tendencies as competing with or threatening Western ideas, hence the persecution of the Cathars.
Maybe I'm going into circular logic here. Maybe I am just seeing materialism as Western because I'm only categorising the materialistic ideas as truly Western. I don't know, I'll reflect on that more.
Sorry this message isn't nearly as well thought out or detailed as I'd like it to be, I have to catch up on some tasks. Thank you for your reply though, and I agree that there is gawdiness elsewhere in the world, even long before Western influence. I just felt like giving WestCiv a kicking as it seems to be dominant and worshipped, without the excuse of Xenophilia that attracts people to tasteless Indian, African, Chinese, etc. works.