Myanmar Sports

Myanmar traditional sports include Chinlone, boxing, rowing, cock-fights, and Myanmar thaing.

Chinlone

Chinlone is a traditional sport played with a cane ball made of rattan cane. It is hollow inside and about 16 inches (41 cm) in circumference. Usually, six players stand in a circle and try to keep the ball in the air using only their knees, heels, toes, elbows, shoulders, and head but not the hands. It is a simple game but requires great skill and good teamwork in tossing the ball around. Chinlone was once played to entertain the king, but it declined in popularity during the colonial period. In post-independence times, there have been great efforts to revive and promote it, and many chinlone associations have been formed. There are even women players who are so skilled that they can keep several cane balls going at once. A variation of chinlone is played like volleyball, over a net, with two teams participating.

Myanmar Boxing

Myanmar traditional boxing is very violent even to most Myanmar spectators. The boxers are allowed to use any part of the body to fight, and the match is won by the person who draws first blood, which is actually fourth blood, as each boxer is allowed to wipe blood away three times before being declared the loser. A number of rules, such as trimmed nails and no kicking in the groin, scratching, or biting, have to be observed. The boxer's class is not determined by body weight, but by skill. A youngster begins in the lowest fourth class and moves up when he gets too good for his opponents in the same class. In matches, fighters are matched by weight and build within their own class. However, when a boxer reaches first class, he has to take on all opponents. Boxing matches, featuring famous boxers, travel from town to town and can be found at pagoda festivals. Boxing matches are accompanied by a Myanmar orchestra. Matches usually take place after the harvest until just before the rainy season.

Myanmar Martial Art

Thaing is a Myanmar martial art and a form of self-defence. Players may use long swords called dah in one form of thaing. In recent years, it has been popularized in movies, comic strips, and novels featuring the heroes from the days of the kings.

Cock-Fighting

In the countryside, villagers organize traditional cock-fights, with spectators laying bets on the bird they hope will win. Bird owners sometimes attach sharp spurs to the legs of their roosters, which are trained to attack the opponent.