Pitu

Also पिट्टु, seven stones, pandhunge (पाँधुङ्गे), lakkudhal (लक्कुढाल) and kinwal. The Ministry of Youth and Sports' survey calls it गेम (game) or लक्कुढाल. The name changes from place to place.

Two teams, seven flat stones stacked in a pile, and a soft ball. One team knocks the pile down and has to build it again before the other team hits them with the ball.

Who plays
Two teams, five to seven a side.
What you need
Seven small flat stones that stack, and a soft ball, often old socks stuffed with paper.
Where
A school ground or any wide field, with a line marked to throw from.
When
Any time, and most of all at school.

What you need

Seven small flat stones that sit on one another, and a ball soft enough to be hit with. The Ministry of Youth and Sports' survey asks for a cloth ball and lime to mark the lines. Players in Jhapa and Kathmandu remember balls made of old socks stuffed with paper and plastic.

How it is played

Stack the stones

Pile the seven stones one on another into a tall stack.

Knock it down

One team throws at the stack from the line, one player after another. In the survey each thrower has up to three throws before the next one tries. In the schoolyard rules ECS records, whoever topples at least one stone makes their team the builders.

Seven stonesThe line
One team throws at the stack from the line.

Build it again

The team that knocked it down now has to stack all seven again. In the survey they may kick the ball as far away as they can first, to buy time.

BuildingThrowing
Stack all seven before the ball finds you.

The other team throws the ball

The other team picks up the ball and throws it at the builders. Where a hit counts is the rule players argue over most, and it is set out below.

Who wins

Stack all seven again before you are hit and your team wins. Hit the builders first, and the throwers win.

Other ways to play

Some play with five or six stones instead of seven. Himal Khabar records a version with no ball at all: the seven stones are stacked and knocked off one by one with another stone. In the ECS rules a builder may punch the ball away, but touching it with an open palm is out.

What is on record

  • 2010ECS writes that Seven Stones is the name heard shouted in schoolyards across the country.
  • 2018Readers of the Himalayan Times from Jhapa and Kathmandu remember playing it with a ball of old socks.
  • 2018The Ministry of Youth and Sports' survey of traditional games, made in Baglung, Solukhumbu and Sindhupalchok, records it as game or lakkudhal, five to seven a side.
  • 2019Himal Khabar names pitu among the games the city has crowded out.
  • 2022Onlinekhabar lists it as pandhunge, lakkudhal or kinwal among the local games that are dying.
  • 2022The Rastriya Swatantra Party promises to take dandibiyo, guchcha, khopi and pitu international.

Where the sources disagree, or say too little

Where may the ball hit?

The sources say opposite things. ECS's schoolyard rules allow only hits below the knee. The Ministry of Youth and Sports' survey says a hit below the elbow, below the knee or above the neck does not count, and a hit anywhere else does. Some play with no limit at all. Agree it before the first throw.

One player out, or the whole team?

In the ECS rules a builder who is hit is out, and the throwers win by hitting every builder. In the survey's rules one hit puts the whole building team out.

Five, six or seven stones?

Seven in ECS, the survey and Himal Khabar. Five or six in Onlinekhabar's account. Seven is what gives the English name.

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, page 45, as archived (in Nepali)
  2. Nepali Street Games, Aarti Basnyat, ECS, July 2010
  3. More than just child's play, Nikki Hamal, The Himalayan Times, 25 February 2018
  4. शहरीकरणले खायो रैथाने खेल, Nunuta Rai, Himal Khabar, 13 Mangsir 2076 (in Nepali)
  5. With no inter-generational transformation, Nepal's traditional local games are dying, Sudarshan Aryal and Govinda Raj Nepal, Onlinekhabar, 6 March 2022
  6. गुच्चा र खोपी खेललाई अन्तर्राष्ट्रियकरण गर्ने राष्ट्रिय स्वतन्त्र पार्टीको वाचा, Onlinekhabar, 17 Kartik 2079 (in Nepali)
  7. Seven stones, Wikipedia

Cite this page

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

Nepali Gamesनेपाली खेलहरू