3 super-tough sports from Northeast India that you probably didn’t know about

We are sometimes struck by the speed, fierceness and intensity of sports like football, rugby or hockey. Today we are going to look at 3 astoundingly tough sports from Northeast India. These are traditional sports, played only in the states of their origin. We need to preserve and popularise them, because it will be a cultural loss if they become extinct in future.  

Yubi Lakpi, Manipur  
Yubi is coconut, and Lakpi means snatching. Yubi Lakpi has been compared to rugby, but is actually tougher. It’s not a team game, though an average of 14 people play it at a time on a field with an area of 4.5 by 3 metres marked as ‘goal’. Players wearing only shorts massage their bodies with mustard oil till they are slippery. Then they take a coconut oaked in oil and present it to the chief guest, who is called the ‘king’.  Now each player fights to snatch the coconut from the other and dash past the goal line. Manipuri royals used to watch this sport as a show of skill and strength by youth.  

Insuknawr, Mizoram  
This game originated as an examination for judging strength, stamina and skill. So, no wonder it’s really tough! Only men were allowed to play it. The game is categorised according to player’s weight: below 50 kg, 51-58 kg, 59-66 kg, 67-74 kg and above 75 kg. It involves two well-built men holding either end of an 8 foot wooden pole, standing inside a circle with a diameter of 15 to 18 feet. The man who pushed his opponent out with the pole wins. There are negative marks if the pole touches ground, and a player who falls down is ‘out’. The Mizoram State Sorts Council has declared Insuknawr the Mizo National Game in order to promote and preserve it.    

Dhopkhel, Assam  
This is a traditional ball game played during the spring festival of Rongoli Bihu between two eleven-member team in an open field having a dimension of about 125 metres by 80 metres. The basic idea is to keep throwing a ball till a player standing at the edge of the field catches it. Though the game was once very popular and played for the patronage of the royal Ahoms, it’s now a dying sport.