Southeast Asian mancala

Southeast Asian mancala describes a family of two-player count-and-capture board games played across the Southeast Asian archipelago and mainland, known locally under many names: congkak in Malaysia, congklak or dakon in Indonesia and Brunei, sungka in the Philippines, and makkhum in Thailand. Games in the family are played on a long, often boat-shaped wooden board carved with rows of cup-shaped holes and two larger stores at each end, using small counters such as cowrie shells, pebbles or tamarind seeds, most commonly with a fourteen-hole layout of seven holes per player plus the two stores. Players sow seeds counterclockwise around the board and capture opposing seeds under specific conditions, with Indonesia showing the widest range of regional variation, suggesting it may be a major point of entry for the family into the region. The precise origin is unknown, though mancala games as a broader category are attested from at least the fourth century AD.