A workshop in Moratuwa, turning halmilla, jak and lac since 2009

Three boards the island never put down.

Carrom on a Sunday veranda. Pancha at new year, six shells thrown onto a coconut husk. Olinda in a grandmother's lap, four seeds to a cup. We build all three to the measurements they were built to before plywood — and all three are sitting on the mat below, ready to play.

Playable three-dimensional Sri Lankan game board on a reed mat.

Keyboard: on carrom, left and right arrows slide the striker, up and down set the power, and space shoots. On pancha keliya, space throws the cowries. On olinda keliya, left and right arrows choose a cup and space sows it. The running score and the last thing that happened are read out below.

Finish

Waking up the table…

74 cm of lacquered halmilla Nineteen carrom men and one queen Six shells and a coconut husk Fifty-six olinda seeds, weighed not counted Every board turned on a treadle lathe Boxed in Moratuwa, shipped from Colombo

What each board actually is

Three games with almost nothing in common except the island they are played on: one is a cue sport, one is a race, one is arithmetic in your hands.

Plan of a carrom board: base lines on all four sides, a centre circle, four corner pockets

Carrom

A cue sport played with your finger.

The board everyone in the house already knows how to use. Ours is cut to the tournament laws: a 74 cm bed of halmilla, sanded to 800 grit and finished in six coats of lacquer so a struck coin runs true and stops where it should. The frame is jak, 7.5 cm wide and heavy enough that a hard shot doesn't shift the board off the table.

Boric acid powder is included, and you will use it. A dry board is a slow board.

  • Playing bed74 cm square
  • Pockets4.45 cm, netted
  • Men9 black, 9 brown, 1 queen
  • Striker4.13 cm, 15 g

Play it on the mat above

Plan of a pancha keliya board: thirteen cells to a side, with a circuit round the outside, a row across the middle, a column climbing from the bottom edge, and two diagonals meeting at an apex

Pancha keliya

The game that only comes out in April.

Thirteen cells to a side. A circuit of squares runs right round the outside; a row crosses the middle; a column climbs from the bottom edge up to that row; and two diagonals rise from the ends of the row to meet at a single apex. The two players start at opposite bottom corners and run the circuit in opposite directions, so they meet head on somewhere along a side and one of them does not survive it.

Shells are thrown onto a coconut husk and scored by how many land mouth up. Every shell up scores nothing at all. None up is twelve. Anything between is worth the number that came up. A one, a five or a twelve earns another throw. Your pieces sit locked on your corner until a one or a five releases one — that release is sallang.

You take an opponent by stopping on them or by passing straight over them, but never while they stand on a crossed square. A crossed square is a geval. Get all three of your pieces to the apex first and the game is yours.

  • Board13 cells square
  • ShellsSix, and a husk
  • PiecesThree a side
  • Safe squaresTwelve geval

The game is named for the five points you can score, not for the number of shells you throw.

Throw the shells above

Plan of an olinda poruwa: two rows of seven cups with a store at each end

Olinda keliya

Fourteen cups, fifty-six seeds, no luck at all.

The island's mancala, cut into one plank so the grain runs unbroken from end to end. Lift every seed out of a cup, drop them one at a time going anticlockwise, and if the last one falls into a cup that already had seeds, lift that cup and keep going. Turns run long. Good players see four laps ahead.

The counters are olinda seeds — scarlet with a black eye, and so consistent in weight that goldsmiths across South Asia used them on the scale before they trusted brass. Boards in the Colombo museum from the Kandyan period are cut the same way we cut ours, with seven cups a side; nine-cup boards exist too, and we make those to order.

  • PoruwaOne plank, 62 cm
  • Cups7 a side, 2 stores
  • Seeds56, sorted by weight
  • EndsTurned brass finials

Sow a cup above

Ten finishes, any board

Order any of the three boards in any of these. The measurements never change — only the timber, the lac and what goes onto the face. The first five are patterned. The last five are pictures, and they are painted for all three games: the carrom bed and its frame, the panels of a pancha board, and the long panel between the two rows of an olinda poruwa.

The shells and the olinda seeds are the same in every box, whichever finish you order. Nobody paints a cowrie.

Turned before it is carved.

Everything here starts on a lathe. A block of jak goes on the spindle, the shape is cut with a long chisel, and while the piece is still spinning a stick of lac is pressed against it until the friction melts the colour straight into the grain. It is the same method used for the pahana lit at the start of a new year, the punkalasa set at a doorway, and the sesath carried in a perahera.

Then the carving. The creeper running along the edge of every olinda poruwa we make is liya vela, and the petal ring around each cup is pala peti. Neither does anything for the game. Both take a full day.

  • PahanaThe brass oil lamp
  • PunkalasaThe pot of plenty
  • SesathThe ceremonial fan

13 and 14 April

For two days in April the whole country stops and plays.

Sinhala and Tamil new year is the only fixed point in the calendar of any of these games. The hearth is lit at an hour set by the almanac, the milk boils over, and then somebody unfolds a pancha board on the floor and doesn't get up until dark. Carrom comes out on the veranda. Olinda gets played by whoever is too small for either.

Orders placed before 20 March go out in time. After that we are honest with you about the date.

What we have on the bench

Prices in Sri Lankan rupees, for the lacquer finishes. A carved board is the same price plus 40 per cent and six to eight weeks. Everything ships worldwide from Colombo; the carrom boards go by sea unless you ask otherwise.

Questions we get

Mostly about the rules, sometimes about the timber, and every March about whether a board will arrive before new year.

How do you play olinda keliya?

Two players sit either side of a board of fourteen cups, seven a side, with a store at each end and four olinda seeds in every cup. On your turn you lift every seed out of one of your own cups and drop them one at a time into the cups going anticlockwise, passing your own store but skipping your opponent's. If the last seed lands in a cup that already had seeds in it, you lift that whole cup and carry on sowing. If it lands in an empty cup, your turn ends and you take whatever is sitting in the next cup along. Whoever has collected the most seeds when one side runs out wins.

What size is a regulation carrom board?

The playing bed is a 74 cm square inside the frame. Each corner pocket is 4.45 cm across. The four base lines are 47 cm long, closed at both ends by 3.18 cm circles with red centres, and the centre circle is 17 cm across with a 3.18 cm red spot at the middle. Carrom men are 3.18 cm and the striker is 4.13 cm and about three times the weight.

How do you score pancha keliya?

You throw the shells onto a coconut husk and count how many land mouth up. If every shell lands up you score nothing and nothing moves. If none of them land up you score twelve. Anything in between is worth the number that came up, one to five. A one, a five or a twelve earns you another throw. A piece is locked until you throw a one or a five to release it, which is called sallang, and a five may be split a square at a time between your pieces while any other score must be spent by a single piece. You take an opponent's piece by stopping on it or by passing over it, but never while it is standing on a crossed square — a geval. First player to get all three pieces to the apex wins. Rules vary from house to house, so the sheet in our box gives one version and leaves room for yours.

What are olinda seeds?

They are the seeds of Abrus precatorius, a climbing vine. Each one is about 5 mm across, scarlet with a single black eye, and unusually consistent in weight — consistent enough that goldsmiths across South Asia used them as counterweights before they trusted brass. Fifty-six of them fill a seven-cup board. They are sorted by weight, never painted, and are not for eating.

Which timber do you use?

Halmilla for the playing surfaces and the olinda planks, because it stays flat and takes a lacquer well. Jak for the carrom frames, because it is heavy enough that a hard shot does not shift the board off the table. Everything is turned on a lathe before it is carved, and the colour is lac pressed onto the piece while it is still spinning.

When is Avurudu, and when should I order?

Sinhala and Tamil new year falls on 13 and 14 April. It is the two days of the year when all three of these games come out at once. Place an order before 20 March and it will go out in time; after that we will tell you honestly what the date looks like.

Do you ship outside Sri Lanka?

Yes, worldwide from Colombo. Pancha sets and olinda boards go by air. Carrom boards go by sea unless you ask otherwise, because a 74 cm board in a crate costs more to fly than it does to buy.

What is a sandakada pahana?

The carved semicircular stone set at the foot of a stairway in an Anuradhapura-period building — a moonstone. It is cut in concentric bands: a flame band on the outside, then processing animals, then geese, then a half lotus at the middle. One of our five finishes borrows its bands and its grey granite, which is why that board has no colour in it except the bronze.

We finish about forty boards a month.

One note when a batch comes off the bench, and one in March about new year orders. Nothing else.