CONGKAK was once a popular pastime in Peninsular Malaya, Borneo and Indonesia.
Growing up, I remember almost every household had a congkak board and marbles or seeds to play with.
Congkak consists of a congkak board, which is usually a long piece of wood with two rows of usually seven holes or depressions on each side.
Sometimes there are three or five holes.
Depending on the number of holes, there will be the same number of marbles or seeds in each hole.
At each end of the board is a larger bowl, called rumah, for each player.
The bowl is a deeper depression.
For a seven-holed congkak, we each have 49 (7 X 7 for each side) pieces.
We start by taking all of the seeds out of one of the holes.
Going along in a clockwise direction, we drop seeds, one at a time, in all the holes including the rumah until there are no more seeds in hand.
As we gain experience, we know that some holes are better to start with than others.
When our last seed ends in an opposite empty hole, our turn is over.
This goes on alternately.
The variations are many but, ultimately, the person who ends up with the most seeds in the rumah wins.
WIND DANCING WITH THE WAU
In the olden days, the harvest season determined many of the festivals and ceremonies.
After all the hard work, the end of the rice harvest season signalled the beginning of joy and play.
The strong winds would indicate the time for wau competitions.
Part of the thrill of watching the wau competition is seeing the creativity and ingenuity that’s applied in its design and form.
A lot of attention is placed on the sound of the wau, made possible by the “busur” or the tail of the wau.
Another measure of a superior kite is how long it is able to remain flying.
Some famous wau flyers were said to be able to fly their kites for days.
There is a legend that the prince Dewa Muda flew a wau to indicate each territory that he had conquered.
In another tale, it was said that he used his father’s magical wau to fly to the land of giants and ogres.
Of course the most famous wau is the Wau Bulan.
Around the world, our giant wau have won kite competitions and are very much admired by other kite flyers.
However, wau masters are dwindling as our traditional wau kites are being replaced by Angry Bird and Ben 10 kites! You might not have your own ornate wau but there’s always a lot of fun to be had even with a simple kite.
Go and buy one and then head for the nearby park and spend the day with the family watching your kite soar in the skies.
Don’t forget to pack a picnic basket too!
GASING — SPINNING OUT OF TOUCH
While spinning tops are famous worldwide, our own gasing is rather unique in design and shape.
The game, normally played by adults, requires precision and strength as some tops, made of solid wood or hard fruit, are very heavy.
The idea is to keep the gasing spinning for as long as possible.
Some masters are so skilful that they can make their tops spin for hours.
Unbelievable as it may sound, the current record stands at two hours.
Unfortunately, in these days of digital games and Internet, this outdoor game is finding it difficult to survive outside of its rural home.
However, gasing spinning continues to be a popular past-time in Kelantan and there are still gasing festivals held annually, as well as gasing competitions among Asean countries.
Children all over the world have their version of this game, but suffice to say, the Malaysian gasing, with its unique design and use of heavy wood, is really in a class of its own.
MAIN JENTIK AND BATU SEREMBAN — RISE, THE MATH GENIUS
I have a theory that our grandparents and parents were so good at maths because of the games Main Jentik and Batu Seremban.
That’s what the Bottle Caps and Five Stones games were called back then.
Main Jentik, Ceper or Bottle Caps was a game played with five soft drink bottle caps! The game taught us about the importance of finding the right angle in order to “shoot” a bottle cap even though you have obstacles in the way of your aim.
Batu Seremban, meanwhile, is a game that used to be played using five or seven pieces of objects, either small stones, beads, beans, and nuts, although of late, much improvisations have taken place and tiny bags filled with sand/stone or beans are used.
The aim of the game is to throw one of the playing pieces one at a time and sweeping another on the floor all together catching the one you threw earlier on.
This game continues to advance stages where the game gets complicated.
CHINESE CHESS — THE BATTLE ON A BOARD
As a young executive many years ago, we organised weekend games at a local clubhouse to ensure wholesome actives for the families.
One of the things our team did was to organise giant Chinese Chess.
From preparing the giant chess pieces to writing the Chinese characters on them and learning the game, I truly enjoyed the sessions.
So much so, my daughters learnt Chinese Chess from a close friend, Lai Nyuk San.
Chinese Chess is really akin to a modern computer game.
In a battle between two armies, the object is to capture the general.
What is really quaint is the fact the game has a river and a palace! Generals are not to face each other directly, and pieces are placed on the intersections of the board lines, as opposed to Western chess, where pieces are placed in the squares.
My favourite piece is the ma (horse) but I always felt that the “bulky” elephant pieces, the xiang, are unique!
CHAPTEH, THE GAME OF SHAOLIN MASTERS
A long time ago I asked taichi master, the late K.K.
Nyam, what his favourite game as a child was.
He told me he loved Chapteh, also known as Jianzi.
Chapteh has its origins in 5th century BC China.
Chinese Shaolin masters included Chapteh in their training routine to build strength and agility.
The Chapteh is a shuttle cock with a base.
Players, standing in a circle, aim to keep the heavily weighted shuttlecock in the air for as long as they can just by using their bodies, apart from the hands.
The winner is the one who can have the shuttlecock up the longest.
The taichi master is no longer with us, but I saw some kids having fun in a game of chapteh the other day at the neighbourhood basketball court.
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