Mancala Variants You Have Never Heard Of: Sungka, Congklak, Pallanguzhi, and Bao

You know Kalah and Oware. Now meet their lesser-known cousins from across the globe.

Sungka (Philippines): the variant that reverses everything

Sungka is played on a 7x2 board (14 pits + 2 stores) with 98 shells or seeds — usually cowrie shells, which are traditional in Filipino culture. The defining difference from Kalah: stores are called "ulo" (head) and placed at the left end for each player, not the right. Sowing direction varies by region — some play clockwise, others counter-clockwise. The capture rule is also inverted: you capture when your last seed lands in your OWN empty pit, taking the contents from the opponent's opposite pit.

Sungka is played during wakes (lamay) in the Philippines — families gather around the deceased, and Sungka is one of the games played to stay awake through the night. It is also a fixture of fiestas and family gatherings. The Cultural Center of the Philippines recognizes Sungka as an important intangible cultural heritage. For Western mancala players, Sungka is a disorienting experience: the reversed store position and inverted capture rule force you to unlearn Kalah habits and rebuild your board intuition from scratch.

Congklak (Indonesia/Malaysia): the boat-shaped board with dragon heads

Congklak boards are unmistakable: carved from a single piece of mahogany or teak into the shape of a boat, often with dragon-head finials at each end. The board typically has 7 pits per side (sometimes 5, 9, or more). The game uses cowrie shells, tamarind seeds, or small stones. Like Sungka, Congklak sows clockwise, opposite to the Western Kalah convention.

Congklak is traditionally played by women and girls during Ramadan evenings — families gather after breaking fast (iftar) to play. It is also played at weddings and village festivals (pesta kampung). In Malaysia, the game is called Congkak and recognized as national heritage. In Java, it is called Dakon or Dhakon, and traditionally played during pregnancy ceremonies (mitoni) — the act of sowing seeds symbolizing fertility and abundance. Dutch colonists documented Congklak as early as the 1600s, making it one of the earliest Western-recorded mancala variants.

Pallanguzhi (South India): the woman's game that taught medicine

Pallanguzhi (also spelled Pallanguli) is played primarily by women in Tamil Nadu and Kerala on a 2x7 board with tamarind seeds or cowrie shells. The name means "many holes" in Tamil (pallam = many, kuzhi = hole). Unlike most mancala games, Pallanguzhi uses a "prize seed" system: each player starts with a set number of seeds in their store, and captured seeds are added to this prize pool rather than returned to the board.

What makes Pallanguzhi remarkable is its historical role beyond gaming. In rural Tamil Nadu, women used Pallanguzhi boards as memory aids for passing knowledge of herbal medicine between generations. Different pit configurations encoded recipes, plant properties, and treatment protocols. The game board doubled as a mnemonic device — a knowledge management system that survived centuries of oral tradition. Modern researchers at Tamil University have documented this practice, noting that it represents one of the most sophisticated examples of games being used for non-game purposes.

Bao (East Africa): the four-row monster

Bao is often called "the chess of East Africa" — and for good reason. It is the only mancala variant with a four-row board and two distinct gameplay phases. Phase 1 (namua) is the opening: players sow seeds from their back row, capturing when the last seed lands in a front-row pit opposite an occupied opponent pit. Phase 2 (mtaji) is the endgame: captured seeds enter a second sowing phase with different rules. The transition between phases is one of the most tactically rich moments in any board game.

Bao is played in Tanzania, Kenya, Zanzibar, and coastal Mozambique. Master players (fundi) are respected community figures, and Swahili has proverbs about Bao strategy: "Bao ni mchezo wa akili" — "Bao is a game of the mind." The Zanzibar Bao Championship draws players from across East Africa. For Western mancala players, Bao is almost impenetrable at first — the two-phase rules create a learning curve steeper than chess — but those who persist describe it as the most rewarding mancala variant.

On Toguz Arena, you can play Kalah, Oware, Mangala, Bestemshe, and Togyz Kumalak — five of the world's most popular mancala variants. While Sungka, Congklak, Pallanguzhi, and Bao are not yet available on the platform, understanding their rules deepens your appreciation for the game family's incredible diversity.

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