Belogo, a Unique Traditional Game from Kutai

Helloindonesia.id – The people of Kutai are still strong in maintaining the preservation of their traditional games. Amid the siege of various modern games, traditional game competitions remain a prestigious arena for the people of Kutai. This can be seen in every implementation of the Erau Festival. In this annual event, traditional games become an arena for the struggle for prestige and achievements by contingents from each sub-district in Kutai Kartanegara.

One of the unique games from Kutai is belogo. The main set of the game is a pentagon shaped piece called a logo. The logo pieces are made of coconut shells, which are sanded on both sides. This logo is played by being gouged out using a stick called measles.

Belogo is played in teams, with each team consisting of three people. Each team must drop three targets, namely the logo pieces that are placed vertically at three points in a row from the starting point. The distance between targets is 8 meters with a track width of approximately 3 meters. Therefore, the belogo game arena requires a minimum space of 30 x 3 meters.

Each person in the team is in charge of dropping a target that is different from one another. Everyone has twice the chance to pry out the logo they use, so each team only has six chances to take down the entire target. If the target to which he is assigned has been dropped on the first hit, a player can use his second hit to take down the target assigned to his teammate.

In the inter-team competition, each team plays alternately with a score accumulation system. The three targets, namely front, center and back, have different scores. The goal with the furthest position has the greatest score. If the target can be dropped on the first cut it is called “grand” and gets an additional score bonus. [Ardee / IndonesiaKaya]