IMU Sustainability Student Club held 3 workshops, “Mangala-1, Mangala-2 and Mangala-3” on April 15, 2025, April 17, 2025 and April 18, 2025 at Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Office in order to introduce our campus community and the public to the game of mangala, which has an important place in Turkish Culture and included in the list of Turkey’s intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, and to train for the Civilization Olympics Mangala Tournament.
First of all, Res. Asst. Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK from IMU Sustainability Office made a presentation on mangala and its importance in Turkish culture. Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK made a presentation on mangala and its importance in Turkish culture. Stating that the game of Mangala is played in many different countries under different names, ÇELİKBİLEK stated that Turkish Mangala is basically a strategy and war game and underlined that the rules of the game also differ in this context. For example, while in many versions of the game and most of the digital applications, there is no rule of leaving a stone in the pit where the stones are taken, ÇELİKBİLEK stated that one of the stones taken in Turkish Mangala is left in its own otak, that is, in its own pit, and that this rule is a manifestation of the tradition of protecting the father’s hearth in Turkish social life. He stated that mangala has an important place in Turkish culture and that it can be played in any environment with pits dug in the ground and simple objects such as stones and seeds, and that examples of mangala were found in excavations dating back thousands of years in Anatolian lands. After the presentation, ÇELİKBİLEK explained the rules of Turkish mangala to the participants and then training was held for the Civilization Olympics Mangala Tournament.
About Mangala
Mangala is a Turkish game of intelligence and strategy. Mentioned by Kashgarli Mahmut in his Divan-ı Lügati’t-Türk, it is thought to be thousands of years old. Archaeologist Flinders Petrie found a mangala board with three rows and fourteen holes dating back to 1400 BC in Egypt. A 4,000-year-old stone of the game was also found in Dastarbashi in Kazakhstan. Historical research shows that the game was also played during the times of the Sakas, Huns and Gokturks.
Starting from the 16th century, Turkish miniatures depicted mangala. In Western sources, mangala was first mentioned in a book by the English orientalist Thomas Hyde in 1694.
The game, which has spread to many different geographies, has gained some game rules according to the cultural identities of the regions where it is played. For example; in hunter-gatherer societies, the stones are generally called “seeds” and moving the stones is expressed as “scattering seeds”. Turkish mangala, on the other hand, is a strategy and war game, and the stones are seen as “soldiers”. Similarly, while in many examples there is no rule of leaving a stone in the pit from which the stones are taken, in Turkish Mangala, one of the stones taken is left in its own otak, that is, in its own pit. This rule is a manifestation of the Turkish social tradition of protecting one’s father’s hearth.
Turkish Mangala also symbolizes some concepts. In the game, 12 hollows symbolize 12 months in a year, and each 4 stones in the hollows symbolize 4 weeks. In addition, the treasures on the left and right sides symbolize East and West.