Amun Sungka

Amun Sungka

Acrylic on canvas 14x18

I want to create a gallery of paintings showing true Filipino day-to-day living. I am not a professional painter but I just want to express the way I feel through painting. I am proud being a Filipino and I am very happy to be a Filipino. There are lots of everyday activities that can be transformed in a masterpiece here in the Philippines. Since I live in Bikol, I just scoped my ideas for painting in this region.

Amun Sungka is the first in my gallery. Amun /a-muen/ means play in Bikol Polangui. Sungka is a native game in the Philippines and also found in the neighboring country such as Indonesia and Malaysia. Sungkaan is wood carved with holes, material used in this game. It has seven holes in two rows and 2 base holes(in my painting, I just made it 6 holes in a row). In Bikol, sea shells are most commonly use in the game and sometimes sampalok seeds.

As the painting shows, a girl is having a turn in the game. The other one (in blue) waits for her turn. It is when the girl having a turn stop in an empty hole. The funny thing in this game is that (based on my experience), you don't know whether your opponent is honest enough in the game. Sometimes, he or she hides a shell or two in his or her hand just to have a continuous turn in the game. In local term, they call this as "nagipit" or holding a shell in the hand. I decided to put another girl in the painting, though she is not part of the game, but serves as an arbiter or the watcher whether both is having an honest turns. She looks at the hand of the one in turn very keenly so that their will be fair and sporty amun.