This riddle constructs a metaphor between a human mouth and a house and describes the tongue as a red ox which lives inside of the house. In Tibet, livestock animals are often kept in houses with their human owners. Also, the term lang mar, used in the riddle, can mean a stud oxen--a male used for breeding. The second half of the term however, mar, means red. Therefore, a listener solving the riddle might first interpret the question to be "What is a stud ox inside an old house?" when, in fact, the color red is more important to determining the answer.