Red ochre

[Matthew Kapstein]

Red ochre and other red mineral substances, especially
cinnabar or vermilion, have played an important cultic
role in many societies, frequently in connection with
rites of the dead. For some aspects of the question
in early medieval Tibet, with reference also to selected
Chinese data, one may refer to my *The Tibetan Assimilation
of Buddhism,* ch.3, "The Mark of Vermilion."

Perhaps an additional point of comparison, pertinent in the
present context, is the later medieval ritual use of sinduura powder
in India -- in Buddhist tantric contexts it is a substance
particularly consecrated to the .daakinii.

Matthew Kapstein