Have you ever considered the cultural and historical importance of the magnificent bong you’re holding in your hands, in between deep inhalations of smooth, filtered smoke?
When you use a bong, you’re probably thinking about a lot of things, including if we’re alone in the cosmos or whether caterpillars know if they’ll become butterflies one day. All of your concerns are genuine.
But there was the bong before there were online head stores, before there was the Internet, and long before there was even indoor plumbing. The bong has been around since 400 B.C., so it’s not new. You’ll discover a detailed history of how your favourite pipe became up in your hands below!
The original version of this piece, which was published on July 11th, 2017, has been amended.
Today’s Bongs
There are hundreds of bongs to pick from now days to meet your every demand. Gone are the days when we had to make our own crude pipes out of whatever materials we could find. Electronic smoke or vapour inhalation is also becoming more popular.
Glass is still the most common material used to make bongs, and it delivers the greatest results. Silicone pipes have also been brought to the market to add variety to the current pipe manufacturing industry.
Some pipe manufacturers have been experimenting with employing metals to build bongs, drawing influence from the Qing dynasty. It’s perhaps feasible that for the first time in 2,400 years, gold bongs will become fashionable.
The 1960s and 1970s
Glass became the most common material for bongs in the nineteenth century. After then, in the 1960s, the bong reappears in history. The “free love” hippie generation was formed when the globe underwent a cultural revolution.
During this time, an American lamp craftsman named Bob Snodgrass revolutionised bong manufacture. Snodgrass pioneered the fuming process that gives pipes their characteristic colour patterns, which we still use today. You may thank Bob Snodgrass if the bong you’re using is a beautiful glass work of art.
The Ming Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that reigned from
The usage of bongs was brought into China during the late Ming dynasty, via Persian commerce and the Silk Road, in the second half of the 16th century. The Silk Road was a large network of commercial routes that connected all of eastern Asia’s major economic cities. These roads were used to deliver bongs, tobacco, and opium.
The bong grew in popularity and became the most common way to smoke once the Qing dynasty, China’s final imperial dynasty, arrived in 1636. Even Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled China for 47 years, used a bong, which had just lately become regarded as a commoner’s thing. She was even laid to rest with a collection of her favourite bongs.
When the bong became famous over the world during the Qing era, it was separated into two types. Country people fashioned and utilised their own bamboo pipes. The city-dwelling populace and Chinese monarchy made and utilised elegant, expensive metal models. Bronze, silver, or brass were used to make them.
1,100-1,400 A.D., Africa, Asia, and Iran
Water pipes and hookahs, forerunners of the bong, were utilised in many regions of Africa, Central Asia, and Iran between 1100 and 1400 A.D. It wasn’t until the 16th century that these water pipes were given the name “buang,” the Thai term for bamboo pipes used to smoke tobacco and plants in Thailand.
The First Time a Bong Was Used
The first documented usage of the bong dates back to almost 2,400 years ago. Bongs were made of pure gold by Scythian tribe chiefs who lived in what is now Russia. When a construction crew was clearing the dirt to install new electricity lines in 2013, they discovered hundreds of antique gold bongs during the excavation of a kurgan (burial mound) in Russia. The bongs had been used to consume cannabis and opium, and they were almost certainly part of some type of tribal ceremony.
Conclusion
Bongs have come a long way since they were first used by ancient Scythian tribes. The bong market is now worth $1 billion per year. Online head stores are a modern approach to satisfy your wants for any sort of bong you desire, and Eaglebongs has every imaginable bong under the sun to pick from.
