Ordo
A Kyrgyz game of knocking knucklebones out of the field.
About
Ordo is one of the most widespread games of the Kyrgyz and has survived from ancient times to the present day. The most important bone, the khan, is placed in the middle of the field, and the other bones are set round it like a fortress. The players' aim is to knock the bones out of the field with an accurate strike. Ordo is on the programme of the World Nomad Games.
History
The name of the game goes with the word ordo — the headquarters of a khan or the head of a tribe. T. Arzybaev writes that, because it was played at great gatherings with many people taking part, it was also called "the game of the gathering". In the view of the folklorist M. Mamyrov, ordo took shape in the same age as the Manas epic.
The game is played between two sides. The "khan" in the middle of the circle stands for a ruler entrenched in the centre, and the knucklebones around him for his men: however many bones the sides knock out, neither wins until the "khan" is knocked out. As Zh. Abdieva writes, in the epic Manas plays ordo both as a child and with his forty companions; researchers regard it as a game of the mind that arose as training for battle.
Rules in brief
By the rules B. Tashymbetov gives, a circle 14 metres across is drawn, with a second line a metre beyond it; the players waiting their turn stand behind that line. The "khan" and three bones with it are placed in the centre, and around them five bones for each player. A team has from six to ten players; the game lasts two hours.
Which side begins is decided by lot — by a throw of two bones. The bones are struck with a striker bone called the tompoi; each player has three shots, and one who knocks a bone out of the circle goes on until he fails. The game is run by a judge and the leaders of the two sides; the result is decided by the number of bones knocked out beyond the line.
Peoples
Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept