Dusting Off My Sungka, A Traditional Filipino Board Game
I was decluttering when I found this toy I purchased from Dagupan in 2008—a sungka (pronounced as soong-kah) set. Still wrapped in plastic with its ₱130 price tag, my oblong-shaped traditional Filipino board game was gathering dust.
As I unwrapped it, I realized I didn’t really know how to play this game. My parents forbade me to play with sungka as a kid because Filipino-Chinese businessmen considered it bad luck to own one. All I could do was watch the other kids play. The closest I got to playing sungka was a digital version back in 2000—the bantumi game in my Nokia 3310 mobile phone (time warp!).
Sungka is similar to other Asian mancala games such as congak (played in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Southern Thailand, and Indonesia), chongka (from Marianas), and chonka (from Sri Lanka).
In Manila, I rarely see Filipino kids play classic Filipino games. I sound like an old fart when I complain that they’re too glued to their gadgets and apps.
The Philippine government has proposed the House Bill No. 6192, which aims to be the Philippine Indigenous Games Preservation Act. If passed, we will see annual tournaments of indigenous sports, including sungka. Remember when board game cafés were all the rage in Manila? I was disappointed not to see a sungka set in the spots I visited.
So how is this game played? The player with the most shells at their head (home base) at the end of the game is the winner, but the rules can be confusing for beginners, especially if your math skills are as brilliant as mine. Here are a few helpful sites that break down the rules of sungka:
Sungka-Game.com
vtaide.com
mancala.wikia.com
Sungkaan, anyone?
First published on: October 24, 2011
Updated on: February 4, 2021
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Bring cash I love the game because of the shells
I bought one but my parents don’t like it. They want me to dispose it. They’re saying that is bad luck to own a sungka board
Same with my parents!
Not yet. It’s very expensive here. I may just wait until I visit pinas later this year.
I googled “sungka for sale” and it brought me to this page… then saw your youtube video.. very entertaining… good job !
Thanks, Tony! Hope you were able to purchase a good sungka set.
I remember playing sungka during our family reunion.
Naconvinced na tlaga kong mghanap nito huhuhu. Prang food na bgla nalng akong nagcrave! Bibili ako Ms.Kate and I’ll show how I play hahaha.
This is something that I’m proud of eh! 💕💓❣️💞 Kasi kids nowadays are babad sa gadgets and entertain themselves with social media. But us? We entertain ourselves with little things. We have this traditional board games that exercise our minds 💕💓❣️💞 Sa maliliit na bagay, ung wala kang ginagastos pra maging msaya, un tlga ung mga memories that’ll never fade. 💕💓❣️💞
When I was a kid, ako talaga lagi panalo dito e hahahhaa. I don’t know where my Mom placed our Sungka Board but the memories, laughters are still stucked on my head. 💕💓❣️💞
hindi ako marunong mag sungka at all goodthing during elementary and high school days tinuro yun during PE CLASS 🙂 easy lang naman matutunan:)