BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

MAJORITY of the youths in the Sultanate are not familiar with the traditional game “pasang”, said an Education Service Officer from the Museum Department under the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS) yesterday.

The traditional game workshop was held at the Sultan Saiful Rijal Technical College’s (MTSSR) prayer hall or surau.

“We usually held the workshop in various schools during the school holidays. Most of the youths were not familiar with the board game (pasang).Our department’s role is to teach them so they’ll know how to play it,” Hj Mahrin Hj Abas said.

Mahrin noted that though the young generation is not familiar with “pasang”, they easily understand the mechanics and play the board game very well.

“Usually, it takes five to six times for adults to play the game until they understand it. But for the students (aged 20 below), it takes only one or two rounds for them to fully understand the game,” he said.

It becomes a challenge in retaining the traditional game when most of Bruneians are not interested to explore it, Mahrin said.

He said that one of the main objectives of the Museum Department is to educate the youngsters and encourage the public to come together in preserving the traditional games in the Sultanate.

“The traditional board games are also part of our culture. Our future generation will have it (in their time) if we work together to preserve it now,” he said.

The workshop was initiated by the Mosque Committee of the MTSSR’s surau.

According to MTSSR surau’s Imam Hj Ashraf Hj Bujang, they wanted the young generation to spend their school holidays wisely with beneficial activities.

“Apart from the traditional game workshop, the youths also practised Tausyeh in preparation for future competition and attended several motivational talks conducted by the Mosque Committee,” said Imam Hj Ashraf. 

The event saw 94 male students from various religious schools in Brunei-Muara participating in the event.

A 13-year-old participant, Md Fadillah Ahmadi, told The Brunei Times that it was his first time to play the game. “The game was fun and easy to play. But I think that’s the only time I can play it, as I have never seen that kind of board game anywhere else.”

“The youth should be more active in exposing themselves to this [traditional game]. But nowadays, it seems like the electronic games are more attractive than the old [traditional] games,” he added.

The Brunei Times