Play

On this page, the word play also includes dancing, games, angling, carnivals, archery, etc.

Kittens are very playful. When playing, they acquire skills, which are necessary later in their life, when they go hunting. Read more about domestic cats at Animals: Animals as servants of Man.

Tibetan Buddhist monks, playing outside their monastery near the giant Buddhist stupa Bodhnath, Kathmandu, Nepal. – Tibetan Buddhism is dealt with in detail at Religion: Buddhism. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Their families being too poor to buy expensive toys, Nepalese children often play with materials at hand. In this picture, a little Gurung girl and her brother are building a castle of stones and cardboard wrappings, Kali Gandaki Valley, central Nepal. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

During a carnival in the town of Los Christianos, Tenerife, Canary Islands, these children have been dressed up for a parade, e.g. a little boy as a clown, and a girl as a giant butterfly. (Photos copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Holi is a Hindu spring festival, celebrating the god Krishna, and the victory of good over evil – a gay festival, in which people, regardless of caste, pelt each other with red, yellow, purple, or green powder, or with water, dyed with powder. For this reason, Holi has been dubbed The Festival of Colours.

Read more about Holi elsewhere on this website, see Travel episodes – India 1991: Attending Hindu festivals in Rajasthan.

During another Hindu festival, Bada Dasain, also called Dassera or Durga Puja, gigantic swings are erected in many Nepalese villages, tied to the end of long ropes, which hang down from the top of four long bamboo poles. Other swings are tied to large branches in trees.

Yet another Hindu festival is Bisket Jatra, which is celebrated by the Newar people in the city of Bhaktapur, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. During this festival, a chariot with an image of the Hindu god Kalo Bhairab (a local form of Shiva), is hauled through the streets.

Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), playing in a waterhole, Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand, India. – Read about elephants elsewhere on this website, see Animals: Rise and fall of the mighty elephants. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

The Unga are a Bantu people, who live on islands in the great Bangweulu Swamps, northern Zambia. Their main occupation is fishing, and they also grow manioc, or kassava (Manihot esculenta), besides collecting a number of wild plants, such as rhizomes of water-lilies (Nymphaea) and roots of papyrus (Cyperus papyrus). They also hunt birds and antelope.

Read about the daily life of the Unga people elsewhere on this website, see Countries and places: Bangweulu – where water meets the sky.

Of the 23 species of macaque, the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis) is the most widespread, found from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, south to the Malaysian and Indonesian Archipelago, and thence east to the Philippines.

This species, and many other monkeys, are dealt with elsewhere on this website, see Animals: Monkeys and apes.

Tanzanian boys with balls, made from the sap of a forest vine. They smear a finger in the sap, and when it has dried a little, they blow it up. Then, over the next few hours, they apply several layers of sap, finally producing a small ball. The boy to the right shows a finished ball. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

During a stay in Kota Bharu, Malaysia, I witnessed two forms of local games. Gasing is a spinning top, weighing around 5 kilos. A rope is tied around the top, and with the help of this rope, the top is hurled onto a flat piece of ground. While the top is spinning, another man shovels up the top with a bat and proceeds to place it on a narrow piece of metal, which again has to be placed on a piece of wood. The top must not be touched with your hands. The team, whose top is spinning for the longest time, has won.

Silat is a stylized martial art, somewhat resembling dancing. The point is to fool the opponent and then suddenly throw him to the ground.

Orphaned orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, Sabah, Borneo. Read about these orangutans at Travel episodes – Borneo 1985: Visiting orangutans. (Photos copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

The Batak are a Malayan people, living in a large area, centered around Lake Toba, central Sumatra, Indonesia. More pictures of this people are found in the Gallery – People: Tribals of the Sunda Islands.

This little Danish boy has fun, blowing seeds off a dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). Dandelion is dealt with in detail elsewhere on this website, see Plants: Plants in folklore and poetry, and: Traditional medicine. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

These girls in the Markha Valley, Ladakh, India, play an ancient game. They throw several pebbles into the air, grabbing as many pebbles as possible from the ground, before catching the falling ones. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) is found in most of sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of deserts, rainforests, and alpine areas on mountain tops. This species once ranged all over Europe and northern Asia, from Spain and France east to eastern Siberia. It is still not clear why it went extinct in Siberia, but its disappearance from Europe is linked to the decline in grasslands – its favoured habitat – about 12,500 years ago.

The spotted hyena has a very complex social behaviour, with respect to group-size, hierarchical structure, and frequency of social interaction among both kin and unrelated group-mates. However, their social system is openly competitive rather than cooperative, with access to kills, mating opportunities, and the time of dispersal for males, all depending on the ability to dominate other clan-members. (Source: Holekamp, Sakai & Lundrigan, 2007. Social intelligence in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, 362, pp. 523-538)

A very young pup of spotted hyena, playing with an older pup outside their den, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. When the pups are born, they are jetblack. With age, they become pale grey, before changing into the brownish pelt of adults. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Sinhalese boys in Sri Lanka, playing with ‘air guns’, made from thin sticks, which fit into a tube. When you press the stick into the tube very quickly, you are able to shoot pebbles quite a distance. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius), playing in the Banagi River, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Hippos are dealt with on the page Animals: Hippo – the river horse that lives on both sides. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Yi tribal girl from the Yunnan Province, China, playing with bits of banana leaves, which her parents have been using to wrap around goods, to be sold at a market. More pictures of Chinese tribal people may be seen at Gallery – People: Tribals of China. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Usually, dogs and cats are sworn enemies, but if they grow up together, like this cat and wire-haired dachshund, they can be the best of friends. – Domestic cats and dogs are dealt with in detail on the page Animals: Animals as servants of Man. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Old and weathered wooden sculpture, depicting children, playing with a deer, Taichung, Taiwan. More pictures of wood carvings from Taiwan and other places may be seen at Culture: Wood carvings. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Mural in Povls Church, Bornholm, Denmark, depicting serious sins, such as playing music, dancing, and playing games – at least according to certain puritanical Christian sects. – Read more about Christianity at Religion: Christianity. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

The jet-black choughs (Pyrrhocorax) are master navigators in the air. Often you see them in large flocks, swooping and diving, while calling incessantly – obviously showing sheer pleasure of flying.

The alpine, or yellow-billed, chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus), is presented in depth on this page: In praise of the colour yellow, whereas its near relative, the red-billed chough (P. pyrrhocorax), is dealt with at: In praise of the colour red.

Wearing his mother’s slippers, this little boy is trying to move a plank, the size of which is obviously beyond his abilities, Bagarchap, Marsyangdi Valley, central Nepal. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

(Uploaded October 2016)

(Latest update February 2019)

Kaj Halberg - writer & photographer

Travels ‐ Landscapes ‐ Wildlife ‐ People

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