The Squid Game series once again successfully captived the world audience from the latest season, which aired at the end of 2024. The series spread Korean culture worldwide by adapting traditional Korean games for their story element.
One of its most unforgettable challenges is juldarigi, also known as tug-of-war or tugging. This game showcased strength, strategy, and cooperation as teams fought to pull the opposing team across a designated line with a rope.
While many might associate tugging with worldwide childhood games, this seemingly simple competition has deep cultural roots in Southeast Asian countries, mainly Cambodia, the Philippines, and Viet Nam.
The game was then recognized as part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) from three of the ASEAN countries mentioned before, plus South Korea. Let’s look closer at the unique features and history of tugging in the ASEAN countries and why it deserves its place in the UNESCO ICH registry.
Cambodia: Tugging and the Creation of the World’s
In Cambodia, tugging is called teanh prot with a literal translation from the Khmer language meaning ‘’pulling the rope.’’
Teanh prot is one of the traditional games played by men and women to celebrate the Khmer New Year, called Moha Songkran or Choul Chnam Thmey. The celebration, which also marks the end of the rice harvest season, lasts for three holidays and falls in the middle of April.
The last day of the holiday is named pdach prot or “breaking or cutting off the rope.'' On that day, a rope is ceremonially cut to symbolize the end of the old times and the beginning of a new one.
Thus, the tugging rope is meant to break when each team pulls it in the middle of the game. If it is still intact, the rope will be cut after the game.
The game's origin is often linked with the Hindu story of the world's creation through the churning of the ocean called Samudra Manthan. In the story, gods (devas) and demons (asuras) pull a giant dragon body as rope in opposite directions to churn the ocean and produce the amrita or nectar of immortality.
A fifty-meter bas-relief depicting a scene resembling a tugging is still preserved in the country's icon, Angkor Wat. Even though contemporary Cambodians are predominantly Buddhist, Hinduism left influences and heritage in culture and monumental sites.
Philippines: Tugging in the Middle of the Stream
In the Philippines, one of the known versions of tugging is called punnuk. The game is part of an annual post-harvest ritual called huowah in the communities of Ifugao province, Luzon Island.
The game is uniquely played in the Hapao River. Wearing traditional red clothes, the competitors pull the pakid or rope from attabo tree stem by standing in the river bed and holding their position in the middle of the waist-deep river current. Traditionally, the players were men, but recently, an all-female-player game was also held.
As part of a ritual, the game is opened by reciting prayers linked to the local beliefs. There is a myth that the winning group will have a bountiful harvest in the year while the losing group’s harvest will be easily consumed and thus not enough until the next harvest season.
The area where punnuk is observed is known for its 2,000-year-old rice terrace system, which adorns the hills and offers breathtaking views. The sites are registered as UNESCO Cultural Heritage Sites under the name ‘’Rice Terraces of the Philippines Cordilleras.’
Viet Nam: A Sitting Tug of War
Viet Nam’s version of tugging, called kéo co, is played throughout the country using a durable rattan rope.
The game is part of the celebration for Tết, or the Vietnamese lunar calendar new year, the country's most significant cultural celebration. There is even a saying that if the tug ends, so will the Tet (Vietnam Global, 2021).
Kéo co is not merely a game but also a prayer for good fortune for the coming year, and it often starts with ceremony rituals. In some places, tugging, which shows solidarity and strength, is also used to commemorate the struggle in war.
One of the unique Vietnamese variations is sitting tugging (Kéo co ngồi), played in Tran Vu Temple, Hanoi. Wearing traditional costum, all-men contestants pull the rope in sitting form instead of standing like in the common version.The challenge is not only to pull the rope but also to stay in the sitting position. If one of the competitors stands up, his team will lose.
Uniquely, the sitting pose originated from the history of drought. At the time, the villages competed to draw the water from the only well with water. They were afraid the water from the bucket would spill out, so they pulled the rope together by sitting.
Tugging, Reflection of Southeast Asian's Collectiveness
In 2015, UNESCO inscribed ‘Tugging Rituals and Games’ as an ICH. This recognition underscores the importance of this traditional game as a sport and a cultural expression representing the history, values, and identity of the people that observed it.
For the Southeast Asian community, tugging is not merely a game but a showcase of collaboration of strength as the way to achieve goals. It reflects the collectiveness in the region, particularly in the agrarian community that needs cooperation for group tasks like rice planting and harvesting.
Thus, tugging not only united the players, but also the ASEAN community. Soon we will celebrate this shared heritage as tugging become one of the demonstration sport in the upcoming SEA Games in Thailand.
References
- Respicio, N. A. (2013). (rep.). Punnuk: Closing the Harvest Season with the Tug-of-War along the River Hapao.
- UNESCO. (2015). Tug of war - Cambodia, Philippines, and Vietnam. Retrieved from https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/tug-of-war-cambodia-philippines-and-vietnam-00960
- Sophearith. S. Teanh Prot (Traditional Tug-of-War) in Cambodia. UNESCO ICHCAP Archive. https://archive.unesco-ichcap.org/eng/ek/sub13/pdf_down/2013_s/02-2.Teanh%20Prot%20(Traditional%20Tug-of-War)%20in%20Cambodia.pdf
- VietNamNet Global. (2021, February 28). Red River delta, the land of tugging games. VietNamNet Global. https://vietnamnet.vn/en/red-river-delta-the-land-of-tugging-games-713923.html#inner-article
