emperor. Nevertheless, gambling was prevalent. One very
popular betting game was liupo, which may have meant “six
dice.” It was a board game played by two or four people who
shook six marked bamboo sticks in a cup and then spilled
them out. Players moved pieces on the board according to
what the sticks displayed. Th e pieces consisted of fi ve pawns
and one general, the objective of the game being to capture
the opposing general. Th e board’s design was meant to repre-
sent the universe. Th e game was played with much shouting
and gesturing.
India had numerous games of chance, all condemned
by the predominant religion, Brahmanism, because money
changed hands without producing anything of social value.
Governments regulated gambling, and players were forbid-
den to use their own dice. Gambling dens paid 5 percent of
the value of their property in taxes, and both dice and stakes
were taxed. Dice were sometimes made from seashells or
the fi ve-sided nut of the vibhitaka fruit or were sometimes
cubes of ivory or wood. Th e game of vibhitaka, named for
the dice that were used, called for a player to grab a handful
of dice from a heap of them and declare how many he had
grabbed while throwing them onto the ground. Th e number
declared had to be a multiple of four. Th e player won when
the number he or she shouted matched the total number of
dice thrown. If more than one player guessed correctly dur-
ing a round, play continued until only one correct guesser
was left. Another popular game was pasaka, which used
four-sided oblong dice. Gamblers agreed beforehand on a
number, as well as on their bets, and winners were those
whose throws resulted in the dice matching the agreed-
upon number.Board games in India dated from Harappan times (ca.
2600–ca. 1500 b.c.e.). Harappan boards were made of stone
with grids etched on them. Playing pieces looked like mush-
rooms and towers. Th e most famous game of ancient India
was caturanga, the ancestor of chess. Intended to teach peo-
ple to think like military strategists, it was played by four
people who sat around a board or a tabletop marked with a
grid. Each player had four pawns and four other pieces rep-
resenting a king, a horse, an elephant, and either a ship or
a chariot. Th ese last four pieces represented the traditional
divisions of four corps in an army. Two dice were rolled to
determine which moves could be made. Caturanga called for
strategy and deception, with each player contending against
three others, which required alertness and an ability to keep
track of movements from multiple directions. Other ancient
Indian board games include ones similar to modern back-
gammon and Parcheesi.
China had an ancient military strategy game of its own,
called yi during the Han Dynasty but later called weiqi,
ancestor of Chinese checkers and Go. Its fi rst mention in
surviving documents is from 559–548 b.c.e., but its origins
probably extend back to the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1500–ca.
1045 b.c.e.), and it was played avidly throughout ancient
times. Ancient Chinese tradition held that the game was
invented in the 2300s b.c.e., during the legendary Xia Dy-
nasty by the emperor Yao, as a way to teach his son how to
think. Th e game was typically played on a wooden board
etched or painted with a grid of black lines. Playing pieces
were usually circular bits of stone or wood. Th e object of
the game was to surround an opponent’s playing pieces
with one’s own. It was easy to learn but could involve very
complex strategy. A game between masters of yi could last
several hours. In China emperors or nobles sometimes com-
missioned tournaments in which almost anyone, whether
peasant or emperor, could participate. By the end of the an-
cient era the popularity of the game was spreading to Japan
and Southeast Asia.
Little can be said with certainty about sports and recre-
ation in the rest of Asia and Oceania during the ancient era.
During the medieval era, counting games like those found in
Africa became popular in Southeast Asia, but it is unlikely
these games had as yet made their way along the southern
coast of Asia to Southeast Asia before the ancient period
ended. It is possible that Indian games made their way into
Funan and that Chinese games made their way into Viet-
nam, but evidence for this is scant. Th e game of Go and sumo
wrestling both had their origins in China, but documentary
evidence for their existence in Japan before the medieval era
is lacking. Th at the ancient Japanese played games is prob-
able. Given the nearly universal popularity of wrestling, it
probably existed in various forms throughout Asia and the
Pacifi c. Surfi ng, the best known Polynesian sport, probably
was not invented until aft er the ancient era, because the Poly-
nesians had yet to colonize those islands where it seems to
have emerged.Ceramic Liubo players, from China, Eastern Han Dynasty, fi rst to
second century c.e.; the board is marked with divination symbols,
and the game pieces show the animals of the four directions. (© Th e
Trustees of the British Museum)1052 sports and recreation: Asia and the Pacific0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1052 1052 10/10/07 2:30:54 PM