Back in 2023 we covered the tiny nation of Brunei, the smallest country we’ve visited on our tabletop tour. This month we’re heading back to the island of Borneo - of which Brunei constitutes a small portion - to see what else we can find.
Whilst technically a shared territory between Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia - all countries we’ve previously covered - the inevitable cultural crossover, and Borneo’s status as third largest island in the world, makes it worthy of a closer look. This is most prominent when examining Borneo’s traditional games, which, whilst having their origins, permeate between borders in interesting ways. The mancala-style game of Congklak, for example, may utilise different playing materials (shells, seeds, beads), rules variants (typically concerning the number of pits or holes), and design…
