All about Chinlone, a sport with a touch of dance and martial art
If you ever get a chance to visit India’s neighbour Myanmar, you will come upon a unique sport among other things. This sport, native to Myanmar, is identical to football but non-competitive. The players in it have only one goal, to not let the ball reach the ground while all of them stand in a circle, and keep it passing back and forth. If the ball does touch the ground, the game has to re-begin. The players have to come up with innovative and creative ways to not let the ball hit the surface. Sounds fun and exciting, right? The Burmese call it Chinlone! However, English speaking nations often recognise it as ‘caneball.’ Oh, and here’s something else that’s interesting about chinlone. While it is non-competitive, it does have a layer of dance and martial art infused to it. Today, let us learn all about chinlone.
A sneak peek into Chinlone
Chinlone, when literally translated, means “rounded baskets”. This non-competitive sport, with no opposing team, no winning or losing, comprises of a single six-member team. They pass the hand-woven rattan ball (that makes a distinctive noise) around in a circle (22 feet in diameter) without any contact with the body, except heads, knees and feet (much like football). Whenever the ball touches the ground, the game pauses and is restarted for a fresh round. There’s often one member at the centre of the circle who is deemed as a soloist and tries out various movements (much like dance steps) to keep the ball from reaching the ground. The soloist is regarded as the most important member of the team who is supported by the other five in the outer circle.
While the game has over 200 distinct methods of playing, this technique, known as ‘keepy uppy’ is the most popular one, wherein the soloist also has to do a ‘blind’ shot. The ball comes from behind and he or she has to guess and grab it. This involves a lot of body exercise, much like in martial art.
Chinlone is often played barefoot or wearing specially made shoes, that too on dry and hard surface. The primary points of contact with the ball are the top of the toes, the sole of the foot, the instep and outstep of the foot, the heel and the knee.
Having a focussed ‘zen’ state of mind (like that in martial art) is considered mandatory to play the sport, often referred to as ‘jhana.’ Interestingly, there are times when the soloist performs alone which is called ‘tapandaing.’
Bonus fact: Chinlone is often regarded as the national sport of Myanmar.
Origin and evolution
Chinlone is often regarded as the oldest form of football (deemed by FIFA) and is said to be more than 1500 years old, once popular among Burmese kings. In fact, it was launched as an activity to entertain the Burmese royalty, which is why it was made into a combination of a sport, a martial art (popular in ancient Myanmar) and a dance form. However, unlike popular belief, it has its origins rooted in the ancient Chinese game called ‘tsu chu’ which was much like football. Tsu chu was a competitive sport where a ball was kicked through an opening into a net without the use of hands.
Chinlone got its due recognition around 1950s, following the launch of its official rule book by the Burma Athletic Association. Since then, it has been deemed as the native sports of Myanmar. What’s interesting is that, despite being a non-competitive game, chinlone was part of the competition as well as the closing ceremony of Southeast Asian Games 2013. Sports like the Vietnamese ‘da cau’, ‘raga’ in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, ‘sipa’ in Philippines and ‘takraw’ in Thailand are also closely related to chinlone.
Bonus fact: A festival dedicated to chinlone called Waso Chinlone Festival is held at Mahamuni Pagoda at Mandalay, Myanmar, every year during winter.