Balbat/ Dan Phal

Balbat a sport very much similar to Stone Put, a game of Scottish people is one of favorite sport of Gilgit Baltistan men played mostly in winters. The reason behind playing it in winter to keep the body warm in chilly cold days when sun play hide and seek with the Valleys of GB.

Unfortunately we don’t have sport complexes thus usually men get together in an uncultivated field, a meadow or in a school Ground to enjoy the Game.

A circle is drawn with the help of a stick, the player stands in the midpoint of the circle holding a stone/rock in his hand, while he can use only one hand to bowl it.while putting the pressure he canot cross the border of the circle,if he does is is declared disqualified. With the help of his hand he releases that stone with all his power at forward direction. The winner is one who uses the heaviest rock and covers the highest distance.

In put stone, the Scottish use a rock weighing 16lb to 26lb for men and 8lb to 18 lb for women but we don’t have any specific weight for the rock selection.It depends on how much a player can hold.

It’s strange our women doesn’t play any traditional sport, it’s not that our women doesn’t play any sport they do play such as our young women are into mountain climbing play  Cricket and Hockey on national and international grounds but I see lack of interest in promoting our traditional sports. Even I myself played Balbat in my childhood but as time passed I didn’t play it again might be because of the surroundings or I might have loose interest in playing it.

I hope my work will inspire our youth to uphold our own sports; otherwise they will become part of piece of paper in history books.