The Indian Ocean is the important channel of Maritime Silk Road in the 21st century, and is the main origins of the two sub-systems (the Indian monsoon and the East Asian monsoon) of the Asian monsoon, which plays an important role in the global change. Tephra in marine sediments as a stratigraphic tool not only records the information of source area, transporting medium and mechanism, but also can effectively make isochronal dating. The content and composition of tephra has great significance to study sedimentary and tectonic activity. In this paper, we summarize progress of applied research of tephra in the Indian Ocean sediments, including: 1) the definition of tephra and its isochronal dating in the Indian Ocean sediments; and 2) the analysis method of tephra (volcanic glass) and the effect on trace material sources, volcanic structure and magmatism, the Indian monsoon evolution, etc. Our future work on tephra in the Indian Ocean mainly includes in two tasks: 1) tephra and its application in surface sediments; and 2) tephra and high-resolution paleoenvironment records. Finally, regional climate change and driving factors are discussed by means of tephra isochronal dating.