Newars used red rice yeast in their thon drink, I have discovered

Hyau Thon that the newars in the valleys make, the color red that makes it look like wine is not because of the red rice variety or food dyes, but they use red rice yeast as is available in the Chinese store, Monascus Purpureus. The molds infect the rice first and make them red, and then you can use the rice to innoculate other rice, though you don't necessarily need to go through the whole process. What can also be done is make chang the regular way, powder the red rice yeast and dump it after water has been added. Not before, I think, because it turns out the red rice yeast as some antibiotic properties that could disrupt other molds and yeasts from working.

Also red rice yeast has these components that are supposedly really good for high cholesterol, so that might be a nice excuse for me to imbibe a very small cupful of homemade chhyang every so often, should the opportunity arise.

New tool in my toolchest, always excited and eager to learn these technologies.

Funnily enough the authors of the article on Nepali thon that I read about this in, from a Book on South Asian Ferments, show very little interest towards the nature of the redness of the rice, how it was obtained and the biochemistry of it.