Congkak is a relatively common game played across Southeast Asia, although with variants in other parts of the world such as Africa and the Middle East. The game board is usually in the form of an elongated boat, plain or decorated, and played by two people with seeds or counters made from cowrie shells, pebbles, or seeds from the saga plant. This particular congkak is shaped after the Pertala Wakti, a mythical bird that is the feminine counterpart of the Pertala Indra, both of which are Kelantan and Pattani interpretations of the jentayu in the Ramayana epic. The Hindu-Buddhist Langkasuka and Muslim Pattani kingdoms of which Kelantan used to be part of at different points of its history, as well as its proximity to the Thai border, greatly informed the aesthetics of its material culture. In part due to the massive size of this congkak, it was likely to have been crafted for display purposes rather than for game play.
