Utimate

The Tejo

The “TEJO” (Colombian sport)

Tejo is a Colombian national sport, it is also named “Turmequé”, and this sport started 500 years ago in Boyacá. In this article you are going to learn about the origin of this sport, the stuff that you need to play it and how to play it.

What is the origin?

Muiscas were the first players of this sport when it was named “Turmequé” and was one of the activities to do in their celebrations. At that time, the “Turmequé” was played with a gold disk, it name was "zepguagoscua" and the natives got it changing different things with other natives from different regions of Colombia, in exchange for the gold disk.

The government chose the Tejo like the Colombian national sport in 2000.

What do you need to play?

You don’t need specific clothes like shorts or special t-shirts and tennis shoes. You only need to feel comfortable. To play you need two fields clay, a tejo (the metal disk that replaced the gold disk) and the “mechas” (paper cut in triangle way filled with gunpowder).

Field clay  - a tejo - "mechas"

How to play?

This sport is very easy to play individually or in teams; you don’t need to be an expert. The objective is to throw the tejo to the field clay and landing it inside a metal circle named “bocín”, where you have put the “mechas” before. To win the game it is necessary to obtain 27 points, exploding the “mechas” and introducing the tejo inside of the bocín.

To throw the tejo

Leading the tejo inside the "bocín"

                                         Exploding the "mechas"

Now, you know the necessary information about Tejo. It is time to play and enjoy this typical Colombian sport with your friends. 

Thailand

It`s a southeast country in Asia. Previously its name was Siam. It´s a monarchy. The king´s name is Rama IX and he is the head of state. The capital is Bangkok, the language is Thai and the principal religion is Buddhism.

Thailand had a fast growth in the economy between 1985 and 1996 thanks to a developing industries and tourism. There are amazing places to visit in the country: cities like Bangkok, beautiful beaches, and you need to keep an open mind to understand their culture, religion and different customs.   

 INTERESTING PLACES IN THAILAND

 GOLD BUDA

         This statue has an incredible history, it was found in a little temple which had been destroyed but was covered with gypsum and was a little ugly, so it was moved to a little pagoda in a Chinese neighborhood, but in there wasn’t space there and left in outside for 20 years only covered by a tin roof. In 1955 the monks decided to build other temple and moved the statue there, to do this they needed a crane but it was broken, and it rained a lot so the statue was on the floor, the next day a monk went from the statue and saw something shine inside the statue, when he tried clean it, removed away the gypsum and discovered that statue was built in solid gold.

The Gold Buda measures 3 meters and weighs 5.5 tons, it is the biggest statue of solid gold in the world.

BANGKOK GREAT PALACE

It was the residence of the king, it is a big complex of many luxury buildings, it was limited in the east for the Chao Phraya River and a wall of 1900 meters and after this a canal, it is for this who looks like an island, its name is Rattana Kosin. In this time it was not the king’s residence but yet is used for Government meetings and royal ceremonies. 

 BEACHES AND ISLANDS

Thailand has amazing beaches and islands visited by tourists. And other more naturals like Railay beach and  Ko Samet.

Railay Beach is very wonderful, very relaxing and quiet. It is surrounded by rock cliffs and the only way to arrive is by boat. It’s because of that they are cliffs, very attractive for mountain climbers and tourists who looks quiet sea, who can stay in little bungalows or in expensives hotels.

Ko Samet is a small island near to Bangkok, it is like a forgotten Paradise fot the international tourist who prefers to visit other very touristic islands like Ko Phi Phi or Ko Tao, but offer peace and tranquility that you can’t find in other islands and enjoy an amazing sea. Is it a luxury if you are looking for a relaxing time.

RARE CUSTOMS

LONG NECK WOMEN OR JIRAFFE WOMEN

There are women who were born in Padaung tribe in the limit to Birmania and Thailand. Only a few women can have this logn neck, should be born on Wednesday in full moon, and it is a privilege for her people. They think than a woman with a long neck protects the small village from the danger to the mountains. When the woman is 5 years old she has to wear the first golden ring, this is very heavy, like 1 kilo, and she will have to wear a new ring every year until 12 years old, after that will has to wear the maxim ring that she can support. This woman can never take off these rings, because she will die, the neck won’t be able to support the weight of the head.

Actually, it is more than a custom, they are an attractive from tourism, and that makes the people paid for pictures or ring like souvenirs, and the tribe live from this, but for this reason these women are forbidden go out the small village. 

SONGKRAN FESTIVAL

This Festival is the celebration for the Buddhism New Year, it’s celebrated between April 13 and 15. First it’s necessary to clean every house and especially the Buda statue, the other days the people make offerings like food and good wishes, pick up sand, finally the last day the young people offer water to the old people and ask for blessings and for the rain for theirs harvest. This day is dedicated to the water so finally it is a carnival when all people have to be wet.

THAI FOOD

The principal ingredients in this food are noodles, rice, chili pepper, lime juice and soy sauce. The preparation has to be easy but with great flavor. In every Thai dish there has to be five different flavors: sweet, bitter, salty, spicy and tartness.

The Street luge

The Street luge  

The Street luge is an inertial sport. If you want to practice this sport you have to buy a special asphalt sled and different things to protect your body like helmet, gloves, shoes and leathers. The people who practice that sport can achieve 130 km/h in a long hill. That sport was born in an evolution of long 

board during the boom of the skate in the 70’s.Long board is a sport that uses a board to go down a long hill but standing when the people discovered that, they could achieve more velocity when they were lying, they modify their skateboards. Years later this sport got in the Xgames, and with this it became popular in many countries, like Australia, where today are the biggest group to organize championships and training programs. The most famous street luge guy who practice this, is named Tyler Johnson.

Normally the people who wants to practice this, can design their own boards because they can adjust the board to their body and make different things to make it more comfortable, but they can consider the other option it’s pay round USD $2000 and send your basic corporal information to the manufactured and wait a lot of time to start the practice.

Santiago Gómez Acosta

skills 3 

project

La Petanque

            

LA PETANQUE



 La petanque is a form of boules where the goal is throw hollow as close possible to a small wooden ball called la cochonet or jack. While standing inside a stating circle with both feet on the ground. The game is normally played on hard dirt or gravel, but it can be played on grass, sand or other surfaces.

Petanque is played by two teams. Each team consists of one, two or three players. In the single and doubles games each player has three boules; in triples each player has only two. A coin is tossed to decide which side goes first. The first player throws the jack 6-10 meters away. For tournaments play, a marked terrain is a rectangle at least 4 meters wide and 15 meters long.

A player from the team that threw the jack then throws their first boule. A player from the opposing team the makes a throw. Play continues with the team that is not closest to the jack having to continue throwing until they either land a boule closer to the jack than their opponents or run out of boules.

If the nearest boules from each team are en equal distance from the jack, then the team that played last plays again. If the boules are still equidistant then the teams play alternately until the position changes.

If the boules are still equidistant at the end of the game they not points are scored by either team. The game continues with a player from the team that won the previous end drawing a new circle around where the jack finished and throwing the jack for a new end.

Plays ends, and points may be scored when both teams have no more boules, or when the jack is knocked out the play. The winning team receives one point for each boule that it has closer to the jack than the best placed boule of the opposition. The first team to reach 13 points wins.

The Slacklining

The Indian Strange Customs

INDIA

Strange customs and tradition.

As everybody knows around the world there are a lot of differences, traditions, manners and practices rooted to different people, country and continents. Also, we know that there are big cultural differences between western people and Asian people, these differences are so big in some cases that these practices, manners or customs are for us incomprehensible, weird, dangerous and in some cases nasty.

In this article, I’m going to refer to India, a country located in the south of the Asian Continent, the seventh land extension and the second most populated in the world. I’m going to talk about some of their strange manners and customs.

I’m going to begin with a ritual called THE BURNING OF WIDOWS OR SATI.

THE BURNING OF WIDOWS OR SATI.

The Sati ritual consist that the woman whose husband died sometimes voluntary and sometimes obligated, they burned themselves with their husband’s bodies. In India the people customary cremate the bodies when the people die; cremation is carried out the next day that the person dies. So generally the widows have a short time to decide if she wants to be burned with her husband or not. Today there are discussions about of the volunteer decision of the women; a lot of people think that these women could be acting under society pressure.

The Ritual is now legally prohibited; however there are a lot of people that practice this ritual.

WORSHIP RATS

The Indian people have worship to the rats, this worship is explained for a god called KARNI MATA, She was a matriarch from XIV century the legend says she was the reincarnation of the DURGA the god of the victory and power.

The legend says that one child of her men´s clan died, and she tried come back to the life, to make that she had to appeal to LAMA the death god.

The dead god did a deal with her, but he put a condition the condition was that everybody that integrated her clan ought to reincarnate in rat until they were ready to reincarnate in the tribe again.

The rats are respected because the people think they are the reincarnation of KARNI MATA and of her followers.

They built a temple for the rats, called the KARNI MATA TEMPLE. This temple was built in 1900 by MAHARAJA GANGA SINGH. It is located in a city called DESNOKE, where around twenty thousand rats live. The people go to the temple where the rats walk around their feet and the people eat with the rats.