Dhyakki

Also ढक्की (dhakki), घ्वाँइ (ghwai), एक खुट्टे (ek khutte, one foot) and khutti. Dhyakki is the name of the flat stone too. In English: hopscotch.

Hopscotch. Boxes drawn on bare ground, a flat stone called the dhyakki, and one foot. Push or kick the stone from box to box on one foot, and neither the stone nor your foot may touch a line.

Who plays
Two or more in turns, or two teams.
What you need
A flat stone, and lime or chalk to draw the boxes.
Where
Bare ground with no grass, a courtyard or a lane.
When
Any time.

What you need

A flat stone, round if you can find one, and bare ground with no grass on it. Onlinekhabar's account has the stone chipped into a circle. The boxes are drawn in lime or chalk.

How it is played

The Ministry of Youth and Sports' survey draws two layouts. This is ek khutte, two columns of five boxes. Ghwai, a single column of four, follows it.

Draw ten boxes

Draw two columns of five boxes side by side, ten in all, numbered up one column and down the other.

12345678910Five and sixBoth feet down to restNo foot, no stone on a line
Ek khutte: up one column and down the other.

Hop and push the stone

Players take turns. On one foot, hop round the boxes in order, pushing the dhyakki along from each box into the next.

Rest in five and six

Boxes five and six are where you may put both feet down and rest. From there the stone has to come along clamped under your foot.

Keep off the lines

Neither the stone nor your foot may touch a line. If the stone lands on a line, or does not cross into the next box, the turn passes to the next player.

Who wins

The team that eats the most boxes wins. The players are their own referees.

Ghwai, the column of four

Draw a start line and a single column of four boxes beyond it. Stand behind the line and kick the flat stone with one foot into box one, then two, then three and four, hopping after it. Crossing every box on one foot is a win, and a stone that stops on a line puts you out.

Once through, go past the end, turn your back and throw the stone over your shoulder. The box it lands in is yours. You may put both feet down in your own box, and nobody else may set foot in it. Whoever owns the most boxes wins.

1234Thrown backwardsStart
Ghwai: kick it through, then throw it back to claim a box.

In the city

City memories in the Kathmandu Post and the Himalayan Times toss the dhyakki instead. Chalk circles and rectangles are drawn and numbered, the stone is tossed into a box from a distance, and you hop through on one leg to collect it. A toss that lands outside the shapes, a hop on two legs, or a foot on an outline disqualifies you.

What is on record

  • 2010ECS names Ghoi, hopscotch, among Nepal's street games.
  • 2018The Ministry of Youth and Sports' survey of traditional games draws both layouts: ek khutte for two or more players, ghwai for two to six.
  • 2019The Kathmandu Post remembers dhyakki with chalk circles and rectangles and a tossed stone.
  • 2021The Himalayan Times remembers it the same way.
  • 2022Onlinekhabar lists khutti, a round stone kicked along on one leg, among the local games that are dying.

Where the sources disagree, or say too little

Kicked along, or tossed and fetched?

The survey and Onlinekhabar push or kick the stone from box to box. The Kathmandu Post and the Himalayan Times toss it into a box and hop in to fetch it. Both are played. The boxes differ as well: two columns of five, a column of four, or numbered circles and rectangles.

Where do the names come from?

No source says. The Nepal Academy dictionary has ढ्याक, a thick copper coin, and घ्वाइँ, a Newar word for the biggest of the things thrown at a mark in a game, which suggests both names come from the flat striker. That is a reading of the dictionary, not something a source states.

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. परम्परागत खेलहरूको प्रोफाइल, Ministry of Youth and Sports, 2075 BS, pages 11 and 40, as archived (in Nepali)
  2. Old-school games to take you down memory lane, Arjun Bhattarai, The Kathmandu Post, 21 November 2019
  3. Childhood games in Nepal, Benazir Ahmed Siddique, The Himalayan Times, 31 August 2021
  4. Nepali Street Games, Aarti Basnyat, ECS, July 2010
  5. With no inter-generational transformation, Nepal's traditional local games are dying, Sudarshan Aryal and Govinda Raj Nepal, Onlinekhabar, 6 March 2022
  6. घ्वाइँ, Nepal Academy dictionary, as copied to Nepali Wiktionary (in Nepali)

Cite this page

Nepali Games (2026). How to play Dhyakki, and where it comes from. https://nepali.games/traditional-games/dhyakki

Nepali Gamesनेपाली खेलहरू