Hemp history

The History of Bongs

Pick it, pack it
Fire it up, come along
And take a hit from the bong
Put the blunt down
Just for a second
Don't get me wrong
It's not a new method

There's a lot of truth in Cypress Hill's hit song, Hits From the Bong.

The water does smell like shit on the carpet if you spill it; it does go down smooth when you get a clean hit; and bongs are most definitely not a new method.

They’ve been a staple in dorm rooms and head shops since the 1970s, but the use of bongs dates back much further than that. Thousands of years, in fact.

A bong — also known as a bubbler or a water pipe — has a chamber, that’s usually partially filled with water, with a stem (where you put the Cannabis) and a tube or mouthpiece to draw smoke from.

Just about anything can be made into a bong, from an apple to a milk jug, and advances in manufacturing mean they’re becoming more and more ornate, with multiple chambers.

Drawing smoke through water is thought to cool it down and filter out some of the plant material and tar, but studies show it also filters out some of the cannabinoids.

Our understanding of the history of bongs has only really come into focus in the last decade. Until recently, it was believed bongs were first used in Africa starting in the 1100s by tribes in the southern and eastern parts of the continent, as those were the oldest examples found.

Bongs were then carried into Asia, and throughout the rest of the known world via the Silk Road starting around the 1400s, with the advent of smoking.

But our knowledge was expanded in 2013 with the discovery of a 2,400-year-old kurgan — a Scythian burial mound — in what is today southern Russia.

Inside were two ornate, solid gold bongs dating to around 400BC — about 1,500 years earlier than the earliest bongs discovered in Africa. Residue from inside the ancient Scythian relics tested positive for both Cannabis and opium, a combination that’s known as an A-Bomb today.

You can read more about the discovery and see photos in a National Geographic article here.

As recounted by the Greek historian Herodotus in his work The Histories around 430BC, the Scythian consumed Cannabis as a way of communing with the spirit world, and subsequent discoveries suggest Cannabis was consumed regularly by both men and women.

Life would have been tough as a marauding warrior around the fourth century BC, so it’s not surprising they used it to find pleasure and relaxation.

Ancient Scythian artisans obviously didn’t craft the first bongs out of solid gold. They likely evolved from handheld wooden and clay braziers — small carved or moulded containers that could be filled with cannabis, then hot stones or pebbles would be placed on top and the smoke and vapour inhaled.

Scythian culture has strong ties to the history of Cannabis. As is explained in a previous post, their word for it — Kanab — is widely considered the origin of the word Cannabis.

The Scythian were also responsible for spreading Cannabis use across what is today Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. They brought it to Greece (where we get the word Kannabis), and some ancient Arabic scholars said it was brought to the Levant countries around 1100 by mongol invaders.

It makes sense then that Cannabis and the use of bongs would have been carried into Egypt, and then spread further south to places like modern-day Ethiopia around that time.

The English word, ‘bong’ comes from the Thai word 'baung’ which dates to around the 14th century and means a tube, usually made from bamboo, that’s used to smoke Cannabis or tobacco. The Thai word might itself come from the Bong’om tribe in Africa.

The earliest written use of the English word ‘bong’ was in a 1944 Thai-English dictionary by George Bradley McFarland, so it’s plausible the word could have been brought to North America by soldiers returning from the Pacific theatre during the Second World War.

Bongs became popularized in North America in the 1960s and 70s with the growth of plastic, acrylic and glass manufacturing and by soldiers returning from Vietnam.

In the beginning

Yuan-shan pottery.jpeg

There are two* types of Cannabis — Sativa and Indica — and to understand the difference, we have to go back to the beginning.

The earliest evidence of Cannabis use by humans comes from the Neolithic Age, which began about 12,000 years ago.

Cannabis was one of the first crops farmed by ancient people. In fact. the name Cannabis Sativa is Latin and translates to ‘farmed Hemp.’

Neolithic people figured out that not only are the seeds and oil of the Cannabis plant good to eat, but the fibrous stalks can be processed and woven into things like clothing and rope.

Agriculture was born, which helped create civilization as we know it.

It didn’t take long for the use of Cannabis to spread and advance from the mountains of central Asia throughout the rest of the known world.

Pottery discovered at a site called Yuan-Shan, in modern-day Taiwan, dates to about 8000BC and had woven Hemp cord pressed into it during the drying stage, which could have either been for decoration or a way of labelling that Cannabis/Hemp seeds or oil was stored inside.

Perhaps both.

The oldest textile made from Hemp discovered so far is a piece of cloth from Mesopotamia — modern-day Iraq/Iran — dating to the same period, about 8000BC.

Cannabis originated in the mountains of modern-day Tibet and northern India and was spread throughout modern-day Iran, China, Japan, Taiwan and southern Siberia by ancient settlers and farmers over several thousand years.

The Scythian, nomadic warriors who lived on the steppes of Eurasia around 900BC, played an important role in spreading Cannabis throughout modern-day Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Their word for it, Kanab, is also widely considered the origin of the word, Cannabis. s

The earliest use of cannabis in what is now China, Japan and Taiwan, more as a textile, became what we know as Cannabis Sativa.

The earliest use of cannabis in what is now India, Iran and southern Siberia, more as a drug, became what we know as Cannabis Indica.

Today we know both types produce THC and CBD and due to the fact there was only cross-breeding in the black market for nearly a century, it’s mostly hybrids in North America.

  • There are actually three types of Cannabis when you add the little-known Ruderalis to the list.

Shen Nong — Sativa

Some of the earliest written references to Cannabis involve the mythical Emperor Shen Nong, who is said to have lived around 2700BC and is considered the father of Chinese medicine.

Legends say he sampled 365 herbs — including cannabis — to test their effects as a way of teaching people to be self-sufficient. (He is also said to have died from eating a plant that made his intestines rupture before he could take an antidote).

Shen Nong — which means divine farmer — is credited with creating Chinese agriculture by inventing the ox yoke, the plow and the axe, as well as irrigation and the storage of seeds. He is also said to have discovered tea — which he named cha — after leaves from a tree blew into a pot of boiling water, producing a pleasant smell.

Drinking it gave him a warm feeling that also felt as though spirits were exploring his body, so he chose the character cha, which means to examine or investigate.

There’s no physical evidence of Shen Nong’s existence and whether he was an actual person is a matter of debate as the legend also says he was conceived when his mother inhaled the vapour of a dragon and was born with a transparent stomach, allowing him to see the effects of eating herbs.

Our knowledge of Shen Nong comes from writings that date to around 50BC that were based on oral tradition. These were eventually compiled into the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (some 2000 years after Shen Nong is said to have lived), which translates roughly to: The Divine Farmer's Book of Herbs.

It says seeds from the Cannabis plant — which was called Ma or DaMa — are good for gaining weight and improving blood flow and energy.

But eating too much, Shen Nong warned, “may make one behold ghosts and frenetically run about.”

Cannabis was still mainly used as a textile and food source but burial cairns found in modern-day western China that date to around 2500BC had ash residue that tested positive for THC.

This would be what we know today as Cannabis Sativa.