Strain Library

India

Malana

Also called Malana Cream

Malana is a small high-altitude village of roughly 4,700 people above India's Parvati Valley, known for its own language, Kanashi, and its deity Jamlu. Hemp and wild cannabis were part of village life, but anthropologist Richard Axelby reports that commercial charas-making only began in the late 1970s, when villagers say an Italian visitor taught them the hand-rubbing method; Colin Rosser's 1950s account of its agriculture never mentions cannabis. Malana Cream then travelled with backpackers, and a batch reportedly entered Amsterdam's 1995 Cannabis Cup. India banned charas in 1985. Seed-bank accounts of Malana genetics seldom name collectors or dates, and geographer Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy notes newer varieties appearing in the valley's fields.

Region
Malana village, Parvati Valley area, Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh
How sure we are
Mixed. The village, its charas fame and the late-1970s commercial start are documented by academic and press sources, but landrace status and any seed history are largely lore.
Keep in mind
Malana Cream is a hand-made resin product tied to one village; seed or flower sold as Malana elsewhere is generally a modern selection of uncertain provenance.

Timeline

  1. 1950s Anthropologist Colin Rosser's account of Malana's agriculture never mentions cannabis, according to Richard Axelby's 2015 article. Source
  2. October 1964 Romesh Bhattacharji recalls his first visit, when a guide showed him wild cannabis growing above the village, said to be offered to the deity Jamlu. Source
  3. Late 1970s Villagers adopted commercial cannabis cultivation; Malani accounts credit an Italian called 'Glenu' with teaching the hand-rubbed charas method. Source
  4. 1995 A batch of Malana Cream reportedly entered Amsterdam's Cannabis Cup and was rated among the top two hashish entries, per a guidebook cited by Axelby. Source
  5. 2016 Chouvy wrote that Malana Cream was 'no longer what it used to be' as production grew across the Parvati Valley, and that newer varieties were appearing at altitude. Source

Sources

  1. Axelby (2015), European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 46: Malana revisited (SOAS repository)
  2. Chouvy (2016), Himalayan Highs, Cannabis Now no. 19
  3. Bhattacharji (2015), Global Drug Policy Observatory blog, April 2015
  4. Outlook India: Creme de la Creme (Malana Cream, 2020)
  5. Wikipedia: Malana, Himachal Pradesh (location, population, language)
  6. Wikipedia: Charas
  7. Joint Commerce strain guide: Malana (seed-bank lore, unsourced)

All landrace strainsThe cannabis timeline

Written from the sources above. Informational only, not medical advice.