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Bogor Traditional Games Festival seeks to keep youngsters off gadgets
Students from 19 state and private junior high schools in Bogor participated in the festival and played traditional games such as sorodot gaplok, rorodaan and many more.
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Students of 11 state junior high sing the traditional song 'Tokecang' to cheer for their friends participating in the Festival Kaulinan Urang Bogor, or Bogor Traditional Games Festival at GOR Pajajaran Bogor on Aug. 29. (JP/Theresia Sufa)
T
he Bogor Cultural and Tourism Agency in West Java held the Festival Kaulinan Urang Bogor, or Bogor Traditional Games Festival, at GOR Pajajaran Bogor on Wednesday. The festival was held to promote the province’s traditional games.
Students from 19 state and private junior high schools in Bogor participated in the festival. Each school sent five participants and 20 supporters, who cheered for their teams.
Technical committee member of the festival, Ade Suarsa told The Jakarta Post that the festival featured old-time traditional games, which are now being resurrected by the Bogor administration.
The festival was designed to instill the values of the kaulinan orang lembur (villagers’ games) such as togetherness and solidarity in the children’s minds to counter the negative impacts of global technology, for instance, the use of gadgets.
“We are very concerned about how individualistic children are today, that they don’t put manners before anything else. We hope that this festival will encourage them to get involved in teamwork and value solidarity,” Ade Suarsa said.
Traditional games featured in the festival included egrang (stilts), kelom batok (coconut shell sandals), rorodaan (wheels), sorodot gaplok (stone-kicking), sumpit (traditional play weapon), bedil jepret (bamboo and rubber “guns”), gatrik (hopscotch) and babancakan (stone-throwing hide and seek).
Sanusi, an arts, movie and organizational development staff member of the agency, said that the festival was part of a cultural diversity management program, as well as a means of preserving traditional and cultural values.
“We hope to introduce these traditional games to the students so that they will play them with their friends. This is a way of preserving the games,” he said.
Sanusi also hoped that each school could provide traditional game props to be used by students, “We really hope the schools will try to provide for the traditional games to be played by the students. In recess time, usually, students play ball or with their gadgets. If they have stilts, for instance, they will want to try them out.” (asw)
