Chillum

Implement used for smoking. The
chillum is a graduated cylinder of baked
clay that is usually about six inches long,
which is about an inch in diameter at
the top and half that at the bottom. A
pyramid-shaped piece of clay is wedged
point-down in the cylinder to cut down
on the airflow. The top part of the cylinder is filled with tobacco, cannabis, or a
mixture of tobacco and hashish (charas). Smoking is a communal activity in
which the chillum is passed from one
person to another. The bottom of the
chillum is covered with a cloth called a
safai, which is sometimes changed from
person to person and is often dipped in
water to mellow the smoke. Chillum etiquette holds that one should not place
one’s mouth directly on the bottom of
the implement, which would render it
impure. Because of this, the chillum is
generally held between one’s fingers,
often in highly elaborate and symbolic
ways. Among many ascetics, smoking
the chillum is a part of daily life, a
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congregational exercise, and also the act
of emulating the god Shiva, the paradigmatic ascetic, whose love for drugs is
well known.