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First “Sungka” festival and tournament held in Vienna

By HECTOR PASCUA, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, Austria | 12/03/2008 8:49 PM

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Ambassador Linglingay Lacanlale with Ambassador Grace Motandiro opening the sungka Tournament/Photo courtesy of  Hector Pascua, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

The Vienna Ethnology Museum, in cooperation with the Austrian-Philippine Society, initiated on November 30, 2008 the Sungka Tournament which was held at the Völkerkunde Museum (National Ethnic Museum) in Vienna.

“Sungka" is a Filipino version of the board game called Mancala.

“Our main idea why we staged this tournament is to open the awareness of the Filipinos and maybe interested Austrians that sungka is a unique Philippine game. Further we want to let children born in Austria with Philippine origin to learn about their cultural heritage,” said Professor Johann Stockinger, the tournament’s organizer.

Ambassador Linglingay Lacanlale opened the tournament together with the Ambassador of Zimbabwe, Hon. Grace Motandiro.

“We want to make people aware that we have also local ethnic games and also to tell people that this is a game that is common to many countries. This is what we want to show, that we have a culture to share and this is part of our culture,” Lacanlale said.

Ambassador Motandiro was very much elated having opened the tournament.

“It is an interesting game and full of interaction. It is also relaxing. I enjoyed the game very much!” the ambassador said.

Continue tradition
Letisma Stockinger, also one of the organizers was happy with the turnout of participants who joined the tournament.

“It would be very nice if we could continue this tradition, usually played by children and women in the Philippines. We want to share this typical Philippine game to the Pinoy expatriates and also the children from mixed marriages. This event could awaken the interest of our ‘kababayans’ to play sungka,” said Stockinger.

Uniquely Filipino
Young Filipino Jay Elloso said he joined the tournament because he wanted to experience something unique.

“Sumali kami, not only to support the Philippine community dito but also to experience something which is uniquely Filipino and to have fun of course,” Elloso said.

Christian Feest, Director of the Ethnic Museum in Vienna acknowledged the leading force of the Philippine Embassy under the leadership of Ambassador Lacanlale for making the event possible.

Sungka is an important means for creating identity, particularly for Philippine migrants.

Sungka is a traditional Filipino game played by two participants. The objective of the game is to amass stones or cowrie shells in the player’s home base (bahay) by continuously distributing the shells around smaller holes until the player runs out of shells to distribute. The person who collects the most shells in his or her bahay wins.

as of 12/03/2008 8:49 PM