Champati

Newar च्याम्पती. Also written chyamputee.

A lapsi stone ground to a point and weighted with lead, spun on a bamboo sheath to knock the other tops out of a ring. A Newar game of the valley's winter holiday, and one that has nearly gone.

Who plays
Two or more, each with their own champati.
What you need
Lapsi stones, a rock to grind them on, a little lead, and a dry bamboo sheath or thick paper to spin on.
Where
The Kathmandu valley.
When
Minpachas, the winter school holiday from the middle of Mangsir to the middle of Magh.

Making a champati

The stone

Take a lapsi stone, the hard seed of the hog plum, boil it clean and dry it. Most have five grooves, and a stone with six is prized.

The point

Grind the base of the stone on a rock until it comes to a point it can spin on.

The weight

Melt lead into the grooves to make it heavier. A champati with a needle at its tip, a sera, spins longest on slate, marble or a mirror.

The stoneGround to a pointLead in the grooves
From seed to top. The grey in the grooves is the lead.

How it is played

Spinning it

Spin a champati with two fingers, or by snapping the thumb against the middle finger. One that wobbles, a yana, may not play.

The ring

Draw a ring on a dry bamboo sheath or a sheet of thick paper, and spin the tops at each other inside it. Whoever knocks the others out of the ring wins.

Dhampu, bigChimpu, small
On a bamboo sheath. The big top knocks the small one towards the edge.

Big and small

A big, heavy top, a dhampu, can throw a small one, a chimpu, out of the ring. But a small one that stays inside the ring usually spins longer and wins.

The lattu

The wooden top, the lattu or bhurung, is a cone of wood with a nail at its tip. A string a foot or two long is wound round it, and the top is thrown so that the string unwinds and sets it spinning. As a contest, the longest spin wins.

The Nepal Academy dictionary names champati and the walnut among the other things spun like a top.

WoundThrown and spinning
The lattu, the wooden top.

What is on record

  • The dictionaryThe Nepal Academy dictionary marks the word as Newar, and names the bamboo sheath, kapero, as what a champati is spun on.
  • 2010ECS describes how a champati is made and fought.
  • 2024The Kathmandu Post remembers Minpachas, the long winter break the game belonged to.
  • TodayNepali Wikipedia says the game has now mostly died out.

Where the sources disagree, or say too little

Lapsi or gooseberry?

The Himalayan Times remembers the game played with gooseberry seeds. ECS, Nepali Wikipedia and the dictionary all say lapsi.

How do you win?

Nepali Wikipedia says whoever throws the others out of the ring wins. ECS says the first to knock down the other player's seed.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from one of these. Where a source could not be read, or a claim has none, the text says so.

  1. च्याम्पटी, Nepali Wikipedia (in Nepali)
  2. Nepali Street Games, Aarti Basnyat, ECS, July 2010
  3. नेपाली शब्दसमूह २० चि, Nepal Academy dictionary, as copied to Nepali Wiktionary (in Nepali)
  4. कपेरो, Nepal Academy dictionary, as copied to Nepali Wiktionary (in Nepali)
  5. Childhood games in Nepal, Benazir Ahmed Siddique, The Himalayan Times, 31 August 2021
  6. Minpachas: Adventures in the time of Kathmandu's long winters, Prawash Gautam, The Kathmandu Post, 10 February 2024
  7. Old-school games to take you down memory lane, Arjun Bhattarai, The Kathmandu Post, 21 November 2019
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