Sungka is described as closely related to Congkak, differing mainly in direction of play, but the documented distribution of Southeast Asian mancala games across two separate waves, an early-19th-century wave into Malaysia, Indonesia and the Maldives and a 20th/21st-century Philippine wave, leaves the exact relationship (common ancestor, direct derivation, or convergent local variants of a shared regional form) unsettled.
What would resolve this A documented chain of transmission (trade routes, colonial-era records, migration records) connecting a specific historical Congkak-playing community to the Philippine game, or clear evidence of Sungka's independent local development.
OpenSoutheast Asian game history / ethnographyWikipedia, Sungka