Digor or degor is a traditional sport in

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

, somewhat resembling the sport of

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

. Digor is played with a pair of spherical flat

stones In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's o ...

that are hurled at two targets (pegs) fixed in the ground about 20 meters apart. The game is played all over

, but typically more in

rural areas In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

, and more often by men. The only required

equipment Equipment most commonly refers to a set of tools or other objects commonly used to achieve a particular objective. Different job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and ...

for playing the

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

is a pair of flat spherical stones for each player. The

size Size in general is the Magnitude (mathematics), magnitude or dimensions of a thing. More specifically, ''geometrical size'' (or ''spatial size'') can refer to linear dimensions (length, width, height, diameter, perimeter), area, or volume ...

and

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a Euclidean vector, vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weigh ...

of the

differ from player to

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

depending on his

choice A choice is the range of different things from which a being can choose. The arrival at a choice may incorporate motivators and models. For example, a traveler might choose a route for a journey based on the preference of arriving at a giv ...

and

strength Strength may refer to: Physical strength *Physical strength, as in people or animals * Hysterical strength, extreme strength occurring when people are in life-and-death situations *Superhuman strength, great physical strength far above human c ...

. A player can have as many

of any size as he wants, but can play only two at a time. Digor can be played as a team game or individual game. If there are three

person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...

s, the game is played as on individual gaming basis. If there are four or more persons, it is preferred to be played in two teams that compete against each other. There is no fixed numbers of players on the teams, but too many players make the game slower and cumbersome. So, normally seven players on each team is the maximum number for an ideal game. Unlike shot put, each player hurls a pair of spherical

to the targets from one end to the other by swinging the arm below the shoulders. The target pegs are nailed into the ground with their tips at ground level. As in

horseshoes Horseshoe is a shoe for horses and by analogy is applied to many things with a similar shape. Horseshoes (game), a tossing game played with a horseshoe Horseshoe(s) or Horse Shoe(s) may also refer to: Places * Horseshoe Valley (disambiguation) ...

, the players try to make their stone land and remain closest to the target peg. A point is scored if the distance between stone and the peg is less than the distance between the thumb and middle finger of an outstretched palm. If two or more stones of opponent teams fall in same range, the closest stone will score the point. If all stones in the range belong to one team, then the team will score as many points as the number of stones. There is no fixed point score at which the game ends, but it is normally fixed at odd numbers up to 21, depending on the number of the players and the time the

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interde ...

s have. Unlike in archery, in digor the best players play first to occupy the area near the target. The players playing later are allowed to hit the stones of opponent players that have been played before with their own stones to displace them from the target and replace them with their stones. But it is more difficult if the stones played beforehand are heavy and solid. So, players prefer heavier stones so that these cannot be easily displaced or can be used as a better force to displace other players' stones. Betting on the game differs from region to region and the occasion of the game being played. If the game is being played between villages, there may or may not be a bet. At times it is just played for the fame of victory. However, the game is mostly played to celebrate some occasions such as

New Year New Year is the time or day currently at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system to ...

and other major holidays. On such occasions, the betting is normally fixed on a grand feast and party where the loser will have to stand for the party solely or major chunk while the winner could share a little part. This kind of betting usually occurs for merrymaking and socializing within the

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

or among the

friend Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept of ...

External links

Bhutanese traditional sport - Degor - on Trans World Sport
Sport in Bhutan Sports originating in Bhutan Traditional sports {{Bhutan-sport-stub