Chillums

A typical chillum (or chilam or Shillum) is a straight, conical pipe. Traditionally, chillums are made of clay, stone, or wood, and have been used by the sadhus (holy men) in India and by Hindu monks in the Himalayan area since at least the 18th century to smoke opium, cannabis, and other narcotics and herbs. However, there have been discoveries of old chillums in South Africa as well, so the true origin of the chillum is unknown.

In India, smoking, or even owning a chillum was traditionally limited to male users, and was mainly practiced in the rural areas of northern India. When they lit the chillum, they would touch their forehead with the piece and say, “Boom Shankar”. This was to invite Shiva and the other gods to come smoke the chillum with them.

A chillum was usually passed around, and this made it especially important for the early hippie movement and their feeling of being "one" or part of a "family" in the ‘60s. At the same time, stoners returning from trips to the Indian subcontinent brought chillums back home as souvenirs, and the relatively easy way of smoking and cleaning them added to their popularity.

Side note: Allegedly, the natives of America passed their chillums around anti-clockwise; it is said they wiped their—pardon me—ass with their left hand, and would therefore never touch a chillum with that hand. So instead, they would always pass it to their right.

Today, or better said since the 1990s, the use of chillums has declined due to all the high-end smoking paraphernalia on the market. And there are actually more chillums produced in Italy than India, but older consumers of the hippie scene still stick to this archaic and very direct way of smoking and sharing cannabis. Even the Rastafarians use chillums in their rituals—and miss the “correct” date by just one day with one of them! They celebrate their Grounation Day on April 21st—D'OH! No 420, but still a good day to have a jointly smoke. But I digress...

There are crazy variations of chillums—people are inventive and carve disposable organic carrot and radish chillums (cool idea by the way, it adds some interesting flavour to the smoke), and some others make art out of their chillum creation.

Darrel "Pipeman" Mortimer, a street artist from San Francisco, has made almost 10,000 chillums since 1970, personally signing and selling each one of them. Ain't that dedication?

Many people in the stoner community also call the downstem of a bong a "chillum". Bong chillums are usually made of glass or some kind of stainless metal.