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Handbook of Tibetan Buddhis#133 9/1/10 11:34 AM Page 24

24 T he Handbook of T ibet an B uddhist S ymbols

is said to have presented Shakyamuni with THE VERMILION POWDER
the bilva fruit, and in this gesture of vener- (Skt. sindura; Tib. li-khri)
ation and supplication he humbles himself
before a wisdom-enlightenment greater than A Brahmin named Jyotisharaja, meaning
his own. Brahma is traditionally represented ‘king of astrologers’, was said to have pre-
offering the golden wheel to Shakyamuni, sented the vermilion powder to the Buddha.
but occasionally a tray containing bilva fruit This orange or red powder is sometimes
may replace the wheel. In Tibetan art the identified as cinnabar (Tib. cog-la-ma) or
bilva is often represented as a group of three natural vermilion (Tib. mtshal), which are
fruits, symbolizing the Three Jewels. It is both forms of mercuric sulphide derived
generally depicted like a pomegranate with from naturally occurring mineral deposits.
a rounded nipple-like tip, and its trifoliate Mercury is extracted from cinnabar by a
leaves may be depicted in a variety of styl- heating process, which separates it from its
ized forms. sulphur content. Recombining sulphur and
mercury to produce crystalline cinnabar can
chemically reverse this process. The transmu-
THE RIGHT-TURNING CONCH tation of cinnabar into mercury and back
SHELL into cinnabar revealed the mutability of the
(Skt. dakshinavarta-shankha; Tib. dung elements, and gave birth to both the Indian
gyas-’khyil) and Chinese traditions of alchemy.
In Sanskrit vermilion powder is known
The right-spiraling white conch shell sym- as sindura, and is identified as the mineral
bolizes the Buddha’s proclamation of the ‘red lead’ or minium, the red oxide of lead
dharma, as previously described amongst used as a pigment. The Tibetan materia
the group of eight auspicious symbols (see medica identifies three forms of minium
page 9). This conch was presented to the (Tib. li-khri): coarse minium from stones,
Buddha by the great sky god Indra, who is soft minium from earth, and minium ex-
traditionally depicted in Buddhist iconogra- tracted from wood. A more general interpre-
phy holding this attribute in supplication tation of the word sindura defines it as red
before the Buddha. In this form Indra is lead, cinnabar, vermilion, or sacred ash.
identified as Shakra, the king of the gods, or Both cinnabar and minium have been
as Shatakratu, an epithet of Indra meaning used as mineral pigments since ancient
‘mighty’ or ‘one who has performed the sac- times. In India sindura is the orange or red
rifice a hundred times’. powder that is used to adorn sacred images,

The right-turning conch shell. The vermilion powder.