Bul (also called Buul, Boolik or Puluc) is a running-fight

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

originating in

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

, and is known particularly among several of the

Maya peoples Maya () are an ethnolinguistic group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived w ...

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

and the

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

n highlands. It is uncertain whether this game dates back to the

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

Maya civilization The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writin ...

, or whether it developed in the post-colonial era after the arrival of the Spanish

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

es.

Descriptions of the game

Stewart Culin Robert Stewart Culin (July 13, 1858 – April 8, 1929) was an American ethnographer and author interested in games, art and dress. Culin played a major role in the development of ethnography, first concentrating his efforts on studying the A ...

described the game in the ''24th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology: Games of North American Indians'' published in 1907. R. C. Bell referred to the game in ''Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations''. Both of these descriptions were based on the eyewitness accounts of others. Lieve Verbeeck, a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

studying Mayan language, witnessed the modern version of the game being played by Mopan and Kekchi

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

:{{cite journal , last=Verbeeck , first=Lieve , title=Bul: A Patolli game in Maya Lowland , journal=Board Game Studies , date=1998 , pages=82–100 , publisher=Research School CNWS , location=Leiden , isbn=90-5789-005-4 , url=http://bgsj.ludus-opuscula.org/PDF_Files/BGS1-complete.pdf

But neither can I give you hard evidence that the corn game, as it is now still played by the Mopan and K'ekchi' Mayans, (who are neighbors), was known in ancient times. There is linguistic evidence that the ancient Mayans used to play games of chance. The name BUL occurs in several Mayan languages and always means to play with dice. Sometimes, by extension, it means "to lose with gambling". There is archaeological evidence that the Maya used square- and oval-shaped patolli boards. There are many sites throughout the Maya area where archaeologists found patterns of patolli boards carved in floors or benches. Unfortunately, there are no BUL boards found (yet??) ... Anyway I don't have any thrilling stories for you about famous BUL contests in ancient times. Only three Maya manuscripts were safeguarded from the Spanish conquerors. Up till now no reference to Maya board games was found. Of course, there are a few pictures displaying priests throwing corn or seeds for divination ... Culin's version of BUL is quite accurate. I observed the game being played by 10 men. They placed 25 grains of corn in a row. The game lasted for 3 hours because they played 5 variants.

History

It is not known exactly when the game was developed or what the original rules were as very few records survived the invasion by the

conquistadors Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

between the 15th and 17th centuries.

organised the games in his anthology into those he thought had an influence from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

in their creation. Bul is not listed among these, and in his opinion the game must have developed before Europeans arrived in

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

Rules for two players

There are a variety of ways to play the game, as Verbeeck's account shows. The game could be played by two people, or by two equal-sized teams. The overall objective is to capture and subsequently ''kill'' the playing pieces of the opposition, so the game is in essence a war game. The playing area is divided into equal spaces using rods placed parallel to each other. The two players have control of a base at either end of the play area. The players take an even number of stones or figurines (or any suitable playing piece) and place them in their respective bases. The movement of the stones is determined by the roll of four

dice A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...

or 'bul' (corn kernels). These are marked black on one side (typically with charcoal) so that they land showing either a yellow or black face. The number of marked faces showing determines how many spaces a stone can move: * 1 black – 1 space * 2 black – 2 spaces * 3 black – 3 spaces * 4 black – 4 spaces * 0 black (all yellow) – 5 spaces Alternating turns, players roll the bul and move any of their stones the corresponding number of spaces toward the enemy base. A stone cannot move to a space already occupied by a friendly stone. If there is no other option but to do this, a player must pass. When a stone lands on the same space as an enemy stone, the enemy stone is ''captured'' and is no longer controlled by the enemy player. The enemy stone is placed beneath the capturing stone to reflect its captured state. Every time the capturing stone moves, its prisoners are moved with it. If a stone lands on an enemy stone that already has prisoners, it captures that stone and its prisoners, and these are placed beneath it. When a stone captures an enemy stone, it immediately reverses direction and begins heading back to the home base. Once a stone and its prisoners reach home, any enemy stones are removed from the game, or ''killed''. Friendly stones are ''liberated'' or returned to the set of stones that can be played. A player wins once they kill every enemy stone.

Rules for teams

Only two teams can play, and these must be of equal size. Five or six players per team is a common team size. Seven players per team was the maximum and two per team was the minimum. The game is played with one stone for each team member. Players on a team rotate who rolls the bul and moves a stone.

Variants

The number of stones used by each player can be changed for a shorter or longer game as necessary. Players can also agree before the game that only a certain number of stones can leave the base and be in play at any one time (an example being that players can only have two stones in play outside the base). The game length can be changed by having fewer spaces between the two bases. Verbeeck mentioned twenty-five dividing rods being used, but a much shorter game would be played using only nine or ten rods.

References

External links

Game description
–

Pachisi Pachisi ( , ) is a cross and circle board game that originated in Ancient India. It is described in the ancient text ''Mahabharata'' under the name of "Pasha". It is played on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross. A player's pieces move aro ...

and

Ludo Ludo (; ) is a Abstract strategy game, strategy-based board game for two to four players, in which the players race game, race their four from start to finish according to the rolls of a single dice, die. Like other cross and circle games, Ludo ...

variants website
Computer Bul
– Shareware games

– Puluc for Android Mesoamerican sports Abstract strategy games