Prinsipe Royce PH
Men Playing Sungka
ANONG KWENTONG SUNGKA MO?
While taking pictures inside the Chinatown Museum in Binondo, Manila, I saw two men playing one of my most favorite indoor games, and I took the opportunity to capture their moment. After their game, I tried to recall the mechanics in playing it, because it has been a long time since I haven't played sungka.
SUNGKA
Sungka is one of the traditional indoor games in the Philippines often played using a board with many holes and a bunch of seashells. It was believed that this game came from the Mancala games from our Asian neighbors, which are also characterized by rows of cup-shaped holes and a proportionate number of playing counters such as seeds, shells, or stones. According to Voogt (2010) in his research, the Mancala game, including sungka are played by two people only. One particular set of rules is shared by players in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, and the Philippines. In Indonesia and Malaysia the game is known as congka or dakon (Donkers, de Voogt, and Uiterwijk 2000,79) where it is played on two rows of three with up to two rows of nine or more holes with two store holes at each end.
Medium: Canon EOS 4000D
Date Taken: June 28, 2015
Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved.
Source:
Asian Ethnology Volume 69, Number 2 • 2010, 333–342
© Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture
Men Playing Sungka
ANONG KWENTONG SUNGKA MO?
While taking pictures inside the Chinatown Museum in Binondo, Manila, I saw two men playing one of my most favorite indoor games, and I took the opportunity to capture their moment. After their game, I tried to recall the mechanics in playing it, because it has been a long time since I haven't played sungka.
SUNGKA
Sungka is one of the traditional indoor games in the Philippines often played using a board with many holes and a bunch of seashells. It was believed that this game came from the Mancala games from our Asian neighbors, which are also characterized by rows of cup-shaped holes and a proportionate number of playing counters such as seeds, shells, or stones. According to Voogt (2010) in his research, the Mancala game, including sungka are played by two people only. One particular set of rules is shared by players in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, and the Philippines. In Indonesia and Malaysia the game is known as congka or dakon (Donkers, de Voogt, and Uiterwijk 2000,79) where it is played on two rows of three with up to two rows of nine or more holes with two store holes at each end.
Medium: Canon EOS 4000D
Date Taken: June 28, 2015
Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved.
Source:
Asian Ethnology Volume 69, Number 2 • 2010, 333–342
© Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture