Middle Eastern hookah pipes produced in Weleri

Middle Eastern hookah pipes produced in Weleri

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Weleri, Central Java

Thirty-year-old Sohir looked very serious when trying to inhale smoke through his mouth from a hookah, an instrument of Middle Eastern origin that is used to smoke tobacco.

"It tastes strange. It isn't like tobacco that I know. It's like strawberry. I don't really think this is smoking," said Sohir who is known among his village friends to be a heavy smoker.

Sohir was trying to smoke tobacco through a hookah. However, he was not on a journey to a country in the Middle East, nor was he visiting a friend from the Middle East.

In fact, he was just dropping by the small town of Weleri in Kendal regency, Central Java, some 60 kilometers west of the provincial capital, Semarang, where this particular Middle Eastern smoking instrument is produced as an export commodity.

CV Indo-Arab Interprise, a company owned by Istikanah, a divorcee with two children, from Weleri, produces them, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the main markets.

"I have regular buyers there, but I have no idea to which community my products are sold," Istikanah told The Jakarta Post at her home on Gang Korekan, Weleri village, Kendal, recently.

Istikanah said she started producing hookahs in 1997 after being divorced from her Arabian husband who had given her two sons, Ilham Ahmed Shaekhoon and Mohammed Ahmed Shaekhoon. She said it was her closeness to the Arabian tradition that had moved her to produce them and make a livelihood from it.

Using the hookah she bought while studying at the school of Islamic law at Al Azhar University, Cairo, as a model, she started to produce the shisha and hose parts of the hookah, which she claims is very specific, especially regarding the raw materials used to produce them.

"The specific texture of sonokeling wood that I use makes my products different from those made in Syria, Egypt, China, Germany and other European countries. Mine is very Indonesian," Istikanah said.

A hookah usually comprises one-and-a-half-meter-long vinyl hose, whose extremities are covered with wooden structures, a shisha on top, where the tobacco is placed and burned using charcoal, and a transparent glass vase of artistic design that also functions as the stand of the hookah.

The shisha is attached on top of the glass stand, while the hose is attached to a hole at the bottom of the shisha. When sucked, the smoke from the burning charcoal and tobacco on the upper part of the shisha flows through the neck of the shisha and enters the glass vase filled with water before it finally goes through the dangling hose and is sucked into the smoker's mouth.

The water in the transparent glass bubbles away every time the hookah is sucked. The water, according to Istikanah, functions as a filter for the smoke.

Except for the transparent glass vase that she still imports from the Czech Republic, Istikanah says, all materials needed to produce the hookah including leather, brass, and wood are sourced domestically.

"Someone offered to produce the glass vases for me, but we are still in the process of discussing the details," she said, explaining why it was mainly only the shisha hose parts that she exports so far.

For the shisha, Istikanah initially used copper. However, as a higher-quality product is demanded, she eventually substituted copper with pure brass. She gets the brass parts from craftsmen in Sampurno village, Pati regency, Central Java.

After being given a silver- or gold-colored coating according to the order, it is then adorned with pieces of shaped wood -- the wooden structure -- which forms the neck of the shisha in a variety of designs.

It is the mixture of the specific wooden texture, the brass, and sometimes the iron rings around the wooden structure and the hose, Istikanah said, that have made her products distinctive.

Besides, some 75 percent of the production process is done manually, making them into handmade products.

With some 30 employees, Istikanah said she could export between 100 and 150 sets of shisha hoses a month -- that excludes some 1,200 hoses that she has been exporting monthly.

"We have received so many orders, but we can not yet meet all of them," she said.

Although Istikanah's products are considered to be handmade, her prices are still below the international market. In the website www.hookah-shisha.com, for example, a hose is offered for US$ 17.95 to $24.95, but Weleri-made models sell for only $5.5 to $7 apiece.

Hookahs, similarly, are offered for $68.95 to $99.95 each, depending on the number of hoses. A hookah sometimes has up to three hoses attached.

Those produced in the shapes of animals like swans or fish are usually more expensive, selling up to $114.95. Those from Weleri, however, cost only $57 each for a hookah with the cheapest, smallest glass vase of simple designs, and $82 each for those with the most expensive, luxurious and largest glass vases.

To complete its export products, the company has also been producing charcoal to burn with the tobacco. Marketed under the trademark Indoarab Coconut Banquet and Indoarab Hardwood Banquet, the product is made of coconut shells and wood.

"I'm also in the middle of studying how to produce the tobacco," Istikanah said.

Asked about whether she was worried that other producers might copy her products, Istikanah said that she had patented her products and put the label AMS Design on them.

"A company abroad might be able to copy my products, but I'm sure they will only produce more expensive ones as labor is more costly there. I'm confident that my products are attractively priced," the 36-year-old businesswoman said.