Some of The Nepalese Traditional Games

As we all know that game is so essential for all human being. According to our distinct geographic nature of earth, we have various types of games all over the world. We might have a distinct flavour on the choice of games but sure that we all love to enjoy playing our favourite game. Today here I am going to try my best to mention some of our Nepali historic traditional games that most of the Nepalese people used to play, especially on their early ages. Here are some Nepali traditional games:-

1:- Choi Dum

It's a Nepali traditional game, where two or more than two people gather and play this game. In this game, people use to run everywhere and one person has to touch another person. Here in the first, all players gather and toss then decide who will be the first person who runs after all of the members and starts chasing them. If this first-person becomes able to touch another person then the person who gets touched by the first one starts chasing others like the first one.

2:- Lukamari

Actually, it's not only the Nepali game. In English, this Lukamari game is well known for 'Hide and Seek' game. So here I assume that each and every person of this world knows about the game called Hide and Seek or Lukamari. But here I wanna share some of our Nepali ways of playing this game. As far as I remember my past, I used to play this game a lot. When I used to play this game, one of our members used to count some numbers and while this person counting numbers with closing his eyes, we all rest of the members used to hide in different-different places. The person who used to seek for all of the members must have seen all of them without anyone's help. If he gives up then she must have gone for again counting the numbers from starting point.

3:- Chor police

some of you might have already guessed the meaning of Chor. As we all know the meaning of police, Chor means just the opposite of the police which means thief. This game is quite similar to our first game called Choi Dum but here we decide one is Chor and another police. It can also be played with multiple members. I used to play this game a lot, especially on the way back home from school. Sometimes we even played it in school time and at home. But mostly while we were going back home from school.

4:- Guchha

I am not fully sure whether it has its English name or not but I say it is a marvel game. Here we collect some small marvel ball and try to hit others' marvel ball by another ball. This Guchha or marvel ball game is mainly played by our fingers. We trow it with the support of our fingers. This is the game which was so popular in our country when I was children. I think somewhere in Nepal it is still popular and children are playing it that we used to do in our past.

5:- Gotta

Mostly it is known as a ladies game. It was so popular for ladies in my childhood period. However, I also played it while my sisters used to play. And I can also say that I was also pretty good at this game. Sometimes I even used to win with my sisters and they used to get mad at me. Sad that I don't fully remember, how many stone balls were required to play but I do clearly remember that this game was so famous at that time and every girl used to play it. This is the game where some small pebbles were required and we used to play those small beautiful pebbles in our hands.

6:- Rumal Lukai

This is the game I mostly used to play when I was in primary school. I still have some of those clear pictures in my mind now. At this time, we all were asked to sit on a circle. Our teacher used to choose one of our friends to pick up the Handkerchief and run behind the circle. He/she could place this handkerchief on the back of any of these game members' back. Whoever this running person chose to place this handkerchief, this person had to run and chase before he comes to the same sitting place and sits there.

7:- The stickers card game

You might not have heard this stickers card game but this is also one of our Nepali traditional popular games. One this game we used to gather wrestling cards and used to decide winners according to their height, weight, hair, body, and match as well. As long as I remember undertaker used to be the most powerful one. If I showed the Undertaker while other people were showing other wrestlers' cards, I used to win their posters too. That game was also famous and super interesting. We used to pay Nepali Rupees Rs 1 for four wrestler cards.

8:- Chungi

This is also one of our traditional games. Even though in many places it is mostly connected with girls, I have seen both boys and girls playing it in their own ways. When I was young I also played it a lot. Here we collect some rubber band together and make a small group like a ball. After collecting rubbers and making a bunch of it we call it Chungi and play it mostly with the help of our legs and hands, especially with legs.

9:- Satpatre

Well, even in various parts of Nepal, this game is known from multiple names. We can also say it as a seven stones game because there we need seven stones to play. First, we put all of them in a fixed place and arrange them like we arrange bricks while making homes. After arranging this, from a certain distance we try to destroy it by throwing Chungi or ball (it's a homemade plastic ball. To make this kind of ball, we simply gather some unwanted papers or plastics and give them a round shape of the ball.) Here we have really amazing rules, according to these rules, first, we have to destroy the seven stones row from a certain distance and then the team who are destroying has to rearrange it back. While one team is arranging them like it was before, the opponent team can attack by this Chungi or ball. At this time, if the ball only touches on the team member's head, forearm, and downside from knees, they can play or if it touches on the other place of the body like backside, upper arm, chest, stomach, etc. this person gets out and cannot participate on arranging stone activity.

10:- Dandi Biyo

It is a Nepali game mainly played in the rural areas of Nepal, was known as a national game of Nepal. But after May 23, 2017, Volleyball became the official national sports in Nepal. Dandi Biyo is played with a stick (Dandi) about two feet long and a wooden pin (Biyo) about six inches long. The pin is a small wooden stick with pointed ends. It is similar to the Indian game Gilli Danda. I still remember the day I used to enjoy while playing this game. It's been already around 15 years that I haven't played it. And so sad that I haven't even seen anyone of Nepali people playing this game. So I can easily say that now it is about to extinct soon.

11:- Kabaddi

You might be thinking that Kabbadi is an Indian native game but here in Nepal also we used to play this game a lot. It might be playing with different rules in different places. Here I am going to mention some of our local rules that I still remember. If we talk about the exact rules and regulations of this game, there we need at least seven members on each team. But if we want to play unofficially then we can play it with a single member of one team as well. Actually, it depends on our present rules that how may members we want to have in one team. It has some more amazing rules that every team sends a member to the opponent as a rider. The person who is chosen as a rider must go to the opponent team and chase them there with his/her single breath. There is a middle line in the centre of the ground so as soon as the rider leaves this line and goes towards the opponent team he/she cannot breathe. He/she must stick with his/her single breath. And there is another line at both side of the ground, especially for the riders that whoever comes as a rider must touch this line before going back to their middle line. If the opposing team catches the rider and doesn't let him/her go to the middle line, the opponent team gets one point. And this rider must stay out of the league for this current match. Likewise, if the rider touches the opponent members while chasing them and also safely comes back to the middle line, the rider team earns points according to the person that rider touches.

These are some Nepali traditional games that most of our ancestors used to play when they were kids. At this time all of these games were so popular and many people used to spend their childhood while playing these games. As I already said that all of these games are going to extinct soon. Because of increasing technological development and industrialization, most of the modern people are moving towards city areas and playing modern electronic games rather than their traditional games. Just around 19/20 years ago, in my childhood period also we could see people playing these games. I also played a lot and made my life precious. But now I don't see any single person playing this game. Even if there are some playing those games, I am sure that they are on a decreasing trend. Here I mentioned some of our Nepali games that used to be our life in our early ages. But now all of them have become old fashioned.

Here I want all of you guys to give a little think about your early age and try to remember what sort of games you used to play while you were growing up. I also played volleyball and a little cricket. We all know about these two games so I didn't find important to write about them. But if any of my readers demand about the time of my early life that I spend while playing volleyball and cricket with my friends, I will definitely try to run my pen on them as well. For now, I would like to request all of you to write something about your traditional games that you and your ancestors played in their childhood time.