Ancient Indian sport builds bridges across cultures in Hong Kong

HONG KONG: Overlooked by high-rises on the outskirts of Hong Kong, a group of students practise body-slam tackles and vicious ankle-wrenches at weekly training for an unlikely sport: The ancient Indian game of kabaddi.

Though its professional league has a huge following in India and surrounding nations, kabaddi - a highly physical game where the object is to tag the rival team, often by brute force - is relatively unknown outside the region.

But eight years ago two Chinese anthropologists set up a Hong Kong team to encourage integration in a city which, despite its status as an international hub, can be less than inclusive, especially when it comes to non-white and non-Chinese residents.

"We often hear Hong Kong is Asia's world city but we really don't have much chance to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds," Wyman Tang, one of the anthropologists, told AFP.

"We live in the same neighbourhood, but it's like we are living in a parallel world."

Their project - Kabaddi United Hong Kong (KUHK) - began as a one-off workshop at a local university. It has now spread to nearly 80 schools and social organisations and has had more than 8,000 participants.

Royal Sunar, a coach at KUHK, was shocked to find the game of his childhood being taught in Hong Kong.

"Kabaddi was one of my interests," said the Hong Kong-born Nepali.

"Somehow local Chinese people also like the sport."

Kabaddi is said to date back 5,000 years with roots in Indian mythology, although similar versions of the game have appeared throughout Asia over the centuries, including in Iran, which also claims to be its birthplace.

Teams collect points by sending a "raider" to the rival side, who tries to quickly tag an opponent and then run back to their own