Charas - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Charas is the name given to a hashish

Hashish

Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...

form of cannabis

Cannabis (drug)

Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...

which is hand-made in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It is made from the resin of the cannabis

Cannabis

Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...

plant (Cannabis sativa

Cannabis sativa

Cannabis sativa is an annual herbaceous plant in the Cannabaceae family. Humans have cultivated this herb throughout recorded history as a source of industrial fibre, seed oil, food, recreation, spiritual enlightenment and medicine...

or Cannabis Indica

Cannabis indica

Cannabis indica is an annual plant in the Cannabaceae family. A putative species of the genus Cannabis, it is typically distinguished from Cannabis sativa. Schultes described C. indica as relatively short, conical, and densely branched, whereas C. sativa was described as tall and laxly branched...

). The plant grows wild throughout Northern India, Pakistan and the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

(its putative origin) and is an important cash crop

Cash crop

In agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for profit.The term is used to differentiate from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family...

for the local people.

History of charas

Hashish has been used across the Indian sub-continent for medicinal and religious purposes for thousands of years, and was sold in government shops (along with opium

Opium

Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...

) during the times of the British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

and in independant India until the 1980's (marijuana and bhang

Bhang

Bhang is a preparation from the leaves and flowers of the female cannabis plant, smoked or consumed as a beverage in the Indian subcontinent.- India:...

is still being sold)..

Charas plays an important and often integral role in the culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

and ritual

Ritual

A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....

of certain sects of the Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

, especially among the Shaivs—- the sub-division of Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

holding Lord Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

to be the supreme god (in contrast to Vaishnavs who believe Lord Vishnu

Vishnu

Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....

as being topmost)-- and it is venerated by some as being one of the aspects of Lord Shiva.

Despite this long history, charas was made illegal in India under US pressure in the 1980s and severe sentences were introduced. Even the mere possession had a mandatory ten year prison sentence. These laws have now been somewhat relaxed; however, charas has remained a popular medium for police to extort money from consumers of the drug.

Even at the peak of the crackdown, charas was still popular and remains so today, especially amongst Indian sadhu

Sadhu

In Hinduism, sādhu denotes an ascetic, wandering monk. Although the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, not all yogīs are sādhus. The sādhu is solely dedicated to achieving mokṣa , the fourth and final aśrama , through meditation and contemplation of brahman...

s. The Naga Sadhus, Aghori

Aghori

The Aghori or Aghora are a Hindu sect believed to have split off from the Kapalika order in the fourteenth century AD. Many mainstream Hindus condemn them as non-Hindu because of their taboo violation of orthodox practices...

s and Tantric

Tantra

Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....

Bhairav sects smoke it freely as an integral part of their religious practice. Many smoke it in clay pipes called chillums, using a cotton cloth to cover the smoking end of the chillum and inserting a tightly packed pebble-sized ball of cannabis as filter under the chunk of charas. Before lighting the chillum they will chant the many names of Shiva in veneration

Veneration

Veneration , or veneration of saints, is a special act of honoring a saint: an angel, or a dead person who has been identified by a church committee as singular in the traditions of the religion. It is practiced by the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic, and Eastern Catholic Churches...

. However its fast regaining the popularity it once enjoyed with younger generation of India regarding it as a recreational drug of choice.Its freely available in north Indian cities such as Delhi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana for clubbers.

Local cultivation

The best hashish grown in India comes from the mountains. The variety from Kasol

Kasol

Kasol is a village situated on the banks of the Parvati River, on the way between Bhuntar to Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh, India. It is located 42 km east of Kullu at the height of 1640 meters. Kasol is partitioned into Old Kasol and New Kasol on the either side of the bridge.Kasol has...

and Malana is considered to be of the highest quality throughout India. It is easily available in Shimla, Naldera, Karsog, Narkanda, Kullu & Rampur — practically every area in Himachal Pradesh. For this reason, the Indian subcontinent has become very popular with backpackers and drug smugglers. The best charas, known as "Cream", is made very high up away from the police and can be found in Malana and Kasol area Of Himachal.

During hand-harvesting the resin sticks to one's palms and by the end of the day one has perhaps 8 or 9 grams of charas. The faster one works, the lower the quality of charas; hence to make "Malana cream" it is necessary to go very slowly and make only a few grams a day. Nowadays production of cannabis in the Himalayas has increased with growing demand for Malana cream; the ancient art of manufacturing is disappearing under the pressure to capitalize on the domestic and international market for charas.

High quality charas was also produced in Nepal

Nepal

and sold in government monopoly stores in Kathmandu until the government gave in to international pressure and got out of the business in the 1970s. Rolpa district

Rolpa District

Rolpa of 210,004. Livang is the district's administrative center.By Nepalese standards, Rolpa is an underdeveloped area plagued by low life expectancy and poverty . It was a major flashpoint in the 1996-2006 Civil War.Adjoining districts are Dang to the south, Pyuthan to the east, Salyan to the...

in western Nepal was a production center, with ganja

Cannabis (drug)

and charas both an important cash crop in this extremely isolated, underdeveloped and impoverished region.

Gardaa

Gardaa is a type of hashish made primarily in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

, but also in Pakistani tribal areas

Fata

The FATA or FC-ATA is a type of computer hard disk drive. FATA is simply the low cost ATA or SATA disk drive equipped with a small external converter, that changes the interface to Fibre Channel...

, using dried cannabis

Cannabis

of high potency. It is a very pure form of Charas; free from any additive chemicals. It is a very pliable substance which can take any shape. Usually sold in the shape of balls, Gardaa starts dissolving into smaller particles even with the heat of the palm. Gardaa is an Urdu word which means "dust". It is named Gardaa due to its similarity in colour to mud or brown thick dust. Charas is mostly consumed after it is heated. After it is heated, the "brown powder" changes into a smooth "greenish mass". The term gardaa is also some times used to describe the greenish powder-form of charas. Gardaa has two types mainly, one is soft, solid, smooth structure known as pakka garda and the other one is kacha gardaa, kacha gardaa is a soft powder which is green (or lightly green brown sometimes).

Although gardaa is available throughout Pakistan, it is made in the northern tribal areas of Pakistan and in Afghanistan. It is mainly available in Peshawar, and even though the smell may linger in bazaars, it is not sold openly—though with a help of a guide one can find it. In N-W.F.P., It can mostly be found in those areas which lie on the border with Khyber Agency, Orakzai Agency and Kurram Agency. One such place is Shah Kass which is part of Khyber Agency and borders with the Hayatabad neighborhood of Peshawar city. One "tola" on average costs 600 Pakistani Rupees. Its price has increased due to the tension in the Tribal Areas.

Mixtures with tobacco

Gardaa is smoked, usually mixed with cigarette

Cigarette

A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...

tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

and rolled back into the cigarette blank. Cigarettes that burn longer due to cigarette paper/tobacco qualities are preferred for mixing and smoking Gardaa. To smoke Gardaa in a Cigarette, Cigarette tobacco is taken out and refined using hands to make it into smaller particles. Tobacco leaves with less moisture are easier to crush. Gardaa is then heated to make it soft; this is often referred to as "cooking". The objective is to dissolve the Gardaa in the tobacco to make a mix while wasting minimum smoke value (meaning heated only enough to make it soft without burning it into smoke). Once mixed with the tobacco using hands it is filled back into the cigarette blank. The cigarette is tightly filled back to ensure maximum smoke in each puff. The cigarette commonly used is Cavenders cigarette

Cavenders cigarette

Cavenders cigaretteIt is a filterless cigarette available in India, liked because of its strong tobacco and lack of filter. Usually preferred by the poor sadhus and rickshaw pullers, it is used primarily to smoke charas. The cigarette is emptied on the palm, the crushed charas mixed with it and...

, preferred because it is filterless.

Rolling paper is also used to smoke Gardaa. Gardaa with tobacco mixture is filled into the rolling paper to make a joint.

Gardaa production in Kashmir

In the Indian administered part of Kashmir, Gardaa is made from dried cannabis leaves of low quality. They put the material into a cornleaf, by twisting the leaf the material is being pressed in the shape of a corkscrew. After some weeks or months of fermentation the unwrapped product is sold in its typical twisted shape but now in strong consistence for only half the price of charas. The colour ranges from green to brown, depending on the quality.It may have bits of sand in it because it is often dug into the ground for fermentation.

Differences with Hashish from Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia

Hashish from Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

, Morroco and other countries in the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

and Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

is prepared in a different way, mostly by sieving dried male (pollen) and female cannabis plants over a gauze

Gauze

Gauze is a thin, translucent fabric with a loose open weave.-Uses and types:Gauze was originally made of silk and was used for clothing. It is now used for many different things, including gauze sponges for medical purposes. When used as a medical dressing, gauze is generally made of cotton...

or fine sieve. The fine powder is then filled into plastic (or cotton) pouches and heat ironed into compressed bricks or plates, ready to be exported. If no iron is available, the powder is filled into plastic pouches, then wrapped in some layers of newspaper and then rolled with a bottle over a hot griddle or pan. However, what is smoked locally is much similar to black charras or gardaa and is sometimes called sputnik, for it's less tiresome effect compared to the regular green or red export hashish. The tiresome effect is believed to come from the amount of leaf matter that adulterates the export hashish, but may also be due to the presence of male pollen. The similar (inferiour) kind of Hashish is also found in the cannabis steppes from Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

to Western China (Xinjiang

Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...

). It is sometimes sold in it's uncompressed form as yellow "pollen".

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