Spiritual ochre
By Jaya Marciano (IFM/BSc1, 2026–2027)
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Ochre isn’t anyone’s favourite colour; it’s never children’s first choice. It looks like a botched, accidental mixture; the colour you end up with on your paint palette after hours of work on a canvas.It’s a colour that’s neither quite warm nor quite cool, and difficult to describe precisely according to its shades.
And yet, it possesses a unique symbolism. There is a dark ochre — which one might almost describe as grubby, resembling rusted gold, weathered by time and use — which plays an important role in Buddhism. I spent my childhood in the pagodas of Créteil and Vincennes (my mother is from Cambodia; she is a Buddhist). In Buddhism as practised in South-East Asia (Theravāda), the ochre of the monks’ robes represents a renunciation of worldly luxury and vanity. It fills the pagodas and temples, enveloping the spaces in an atmosphere of calm and contemplation.
This particular ochre is derived from the humblest of pigments: extracts from jackfruit roots, bark or wood. This colour embodies a silent spirituality and that sense of inner peace the moment you lay eyes on it. One is drawn into this warm and most comforting bubble, which immediately instils a sense of security. When I enter a temple, I am drawn into this ochre bubble and the movements around me come to a standstill. I find myself alone, yet always with the feeling of being accompanied by a warm and familiar presence; one that welcomes me back into this sanctuary.
