Improving Alertness by Playing Dakon

Two little girls sit facing one to each other in the hall of the house. They are facing to a wooden board with 16 holes on it filled with the seeds of the sapodilla fruit. Their hair is plaited; there are smiles on their faces so that their white, small teeth show up. Occasionally, the little hand lifts a handful seeds of sapodilla fruit and distributes them to holes on the board. Happiness shines from the face of the little girls who clearly are playing dakon.

Where can we find such a view, then? In fact, it is not that easy to find one, moreover many little girls in this modern era prefer to play with their lovely Barbie dolls. Nonetheless, YogYES succeeded in finding it in Sewon, Bantul. Even though they did not do it in the hall of the house, they still look so happy playing the game. It is, of course, more exciting to play it by ourselves than just see other people do it.

Thisgame that is often called congklak. There are two instruments needed to play dakon, namely the dakon board with 16 holes; 7 holes on each side and 1 hole on each pole functioning as the storage and the seeds of sapodilla fruit. The essence of the game is collecting as much as seeds into the storage hole as our possession. The win and loss of the game is determined by the number of the seeds collected.

To determine the first turn for the player to play the game, they do ping sut. Afterwards, as many as 98 seeds are distributed to each holes, except the two storage holes in the poles, equally. Thus, each hole will contain 7 seeds and each player will have 49 seed distributed to 7 holes on her side. The game starts with collecting all seeds in a hole and distribute them one by one to other holes consecutively.

There are some rules in distributing the seeds. The seeds collected from one hole are distributed one by one to other holes, including the ones of the opponent, clockwise. When we come to our storage hole, we drop one seed in it. However, we do not do it when we pass by the opponent's storage hole.

There are some tricks to win the game. We hope that you still remember them. Before starting to play, for example, the player determines the seeds of which hole to be distributed. The intention is that the last seed will get into an empty hole, either on our side or on the opponent's side so that we can mikul (carry) or nembak (shoot).

In order to "carry" or "shoot", there are certain rules. When the last seed gets into an empty hole in our side, we can "shoot" our opponent by taking their seeds in the opposite hole and keep them in our storage hole. If the last seed gets into opponent's empty hole, we can take the opponent's seeds on the right and left sides of the empty hole that we call it as mikul or carrying. If you are lucky to have such opportunities, you will collect more seeds in your storage hole to win the game.

Are you interested in trying the game? You can buy the instruments of the game in many places in Yogyakarta. Some of the shops sell plastic board with plastic seeds as well. Some others sell the wooden board at higher price. Many people buy the instruments to decorate rooms.

When you played the game, you might play foul, too. For example, you try to deceive the opponent by hiding one or two seeds in order for the last seed to gets into an empty hole. Other fouls sometimes even make this game more exciting. Try to remember them and those will make you laugh.

Many people believe that this game will improve our competence in calculation and alertness. Are you interested? (taken from yogyes.com)