Lerii Kaphi traditional game marks Saleni Festival in Mao village

Our Correspondent

Pudunamei (Mao), Nov.28 (EMN): The demonstration of the popular ‘Lerii Kaphi’, an indigenous war game played during the Saleni, a post paddy plantation festival of the Mao tribe, enthralled the villagers and visitors, held at the local ground of Mao village in Manipur’s Senapati district on Monday.

The word ‘Lerii’ is the name of the east Himalayan cardamom (Amomum dealbatum) and ‘Kaphi’ is the act of spearing with the stem of cardamom.

This exciting traditional game, played by two teams consisting of 32 players each, has been passed down to the present generation by the Mao forefathers since time immemorial; the objective of the game according to Mao elders is to simply to score more points than the opposition team within an allocated time.

The cardamom stem is usually sharpened like a spear and when it hits someone, it can cause severe bruises.

“We wanted to promote and revive this game(Lerii Kaphi)mostly played by the people of Pudunamei village as we found this game the most attractive and interesting one considering its potential,” said Losii Dikho, who is the sitting MLA from Mao assembly constituency.

“We are grateful to the government of Manipur and the chief minister for the inclusion of such an exciting traditional game in the ongoing Sangai Festival.”

Dikho was speaking at the inaugural function of the demonstration of Mao indigenous war games (Lerii Kaphi) at Pudunamei village, 110 km north of Imphal in Senapati on Monday.

The event was organised as part of the ongoing 11th edition of the Manipur Sangai Festival, the state’s biggest tourism promotion festival, which is being held at 13 different venues across the state since November 21.

Informing that the Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had said this game (Lerii Kaphi) would be taken as a state indigenous game very soon, Dikho said, “So if we initiate to promote this game we can also expand the commercial cultivation of cardamom as the people play the game with the stem of cardamom plant.”

Sitting MLA J Kumo Sha of Karong assembly constituency also spoke on the occasion, which was attended by Solomon Arow,  President of Naga People’s Organisation(Senapati), Mahesh Hiralal Chaushari,  DC of Senapati district, Pfosiio Village chief, and LP Pani, Chairman (Pudunamei village council).