What is bhang? Cannabis traditions around the world, from India to the Pamirs

If you are wondering what is bhang, India’s national narcotics policy gives the plain answer: a preparation made from cannabis leaves, consumed in parts of India on some festivals. Because it is made from leaves rather than the resin or flowering tops, India’s 1985 narcotics law does not cover it, and many state governments license its production and sale.

Bhang is one of the living traditions. The plant’s ritual history goes back much further, to a mountain cemetery where cannabis was burned 2,500 years ago, and forward to Jamaica’s legal recognition of ganja as a sacrament. Here is a short tour, with the law in each place where it matters.

Last reviewed: November 2026.

What is bhang, and why India treats it differently

Paragraph 21 of India’s policy draws a careful line. Bhang licensees may make it only from the leaves of wild-grown cannabis plants, and never from the flowering tops or resin. Anyone caught mixing those into bhang can be punished under the narcotics law, and a licensee loses the license. The policy also records a warning from the International Narcotics Control Board about illicit products sold as bhang that contain flowering tops.

The name is old and it travels. The 2019 Jirzankal study notes that the Zend-Avesta, the Zoroastrian scripture, refers to Bangha, the bhang of Zoroaster. That shared word, across Persia and India, is one small sign of how far the plant and its uses moved along the old trade routes.

Jirzankal: cannabis smoke in the Pamirs 2,500 years ago

High on the Pamir Plateau in western China, on the west bank of the Tashkurgan River, archaeologists excavated eight tombs at the Jirzankal Cemetery, also called Quman. Inside were ten wooden braziers holding stones with clear burn marks. In 2019 a team led by Meng Ren, with Robert Spengler and Nicole Boivin among the authors, published chemical analysis in Science Advances showing that cannabis had been burned in them during funeral ceremonies around 500 BCE.

The details make the scene. The tombs also held wooden plates, bowls and konghou, a kind of harp, so the dead went into the ground with instruments beside them. Three of the braziers were carved from juniper, which gives off a strong resinous scent when burned. And the residues pointed to plants with high levels of psychoactive compounds, which the authors suggest may reflect plants moving across the mountains in a region already busy with trade along the northern routes of what became the Silk Road.

Jamaica: ganja as a sacrament

Jamaica has put religious cannabis into law. Its Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce describes a 2023 order that lets recognised Rastafarian organisations and designated individuals cultivate ganja for bona fide religious purposes on approved lands, under conditions and regulatory oversight.

In July 2026 the government held consultations on what it calls the sacramental cannabis framework, aimed at protecting legitimate religious rights while keeping religious use apart from the commercial cannabis industry. A proposal to move the framework’s day-to-day administration to another agency was on the table but had not been adopted when the ministry reported.

Is smoking marijuana a sin? What traditions say

Religions answer differently, so here are two in their own terms. The Catholic Catechism, in paragraph 2291, calls the use of drugs, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, a grave offense, and it sits in a section on temperance and the avoidance of excess. Jamaica’s law takes the opposite view for Rastafarians, treating ganja as a sacrament.

Indigenous traditions are specific to each nation. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Cultural Heritage Center names its four most sacred medicines as sweetgrass, sage, tobacco and cedar, gifts from the Creator found in their own environment. Cannabis is not on that list, which is a good reason to be wary of claims about what all Native Americans did.

Is weed legal in Mexico and the Netherlands?

Mexico is often misread. In a July 7, 2026 statement, the federal health regulator COFEPRIS said the Supreme Court’s ruling covers only personal recreational use under a COFEPRIS permit, which lets the holder grow, harvest, prepare, possess and transport cannabis. The court recognized no right to sell, supply or distribute it, and it did not rule on decriminalization. Medical cannabis falls under separate rules, but there is no licensed store selling cannabis for recreational use, in Cancun or anywhere else.

The Netherlands has the opposite reputation and a stricter rulebook than most visitors expect. Under the Netherlands’ general toleration policy, possession and sale are still offences, but prosecutors leave alone people with up to 5 grams and coffee shops that follow the rules, including a 5 gram limit per sale. Our weed capital of the world post compares Amsterdam with California. Wherever you travel, cannabis stays where you bought it; the DCC notes it cannot cross state lines, let alone borders. This is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• India: National Policy on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
• Ren et al., The origins of cannabis smoking, Science Advances 2019 (PMC)
• Jamaica MIIC: government reviewing framework for religious use of cannabis, July 20, 2026
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2291 (vatican.va)
• Citizen Potawatomi Nation: Cultural Heritage Center, pre-contact lifeways (2018)
• COFEPRIS: statement on the SCJN declaration, July 7, 2026
• Government of the Netherlands: toleration policy regarding soft drugs and coffee shops
• DCC: what's legal

For adults 21+ (18+ with a physician’s recommendation in California). Keep out of reach of children and pets. Do not drive or operate machinery after use.