SINGAPORE – Hidden in plain sight in the Geylang Bahru heartland is a sheltered, caged structure, with passers-by barely noticing its existence.

But around once a week, the Kolam Ayer Gasing & Games Court comes alive when five men, aged 60 to 79, show up. The seniors are among the nation’s last players of a kampung game: gasing, or spinning tops.

Players use a thin piece of rope or string to launch the heavy, round wooden top. A successful launch gets the top landing on the ground and spinning continuously.

In one of two forms of competitive gasing, players battle it out to see whose top spins the longest as the “last man standing”.

In the other competitive format, the players of one team will defend their spinning tops. The other team of strikers will use their tops to knock out their opponents’ tops.

The spinning top has ancient roots as an object of play: One was reportedly found in the tomb of Egyptian monarch Tutankhamun, who lived during the 14th century BC. 

But gasing, specifically, seems to be unique to the Malay Peninsula. 

Mr Koh Nai Tiam, 79, says he learnt to play the game during his childhood kampung days in Malaysia. His family moved to Singapore in 1953. 

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, efforts were made in Singapore to keep the game alive, giving the former painter and cleaner an opportunity to revisit his youthful pastime. 

According to an article published in The Straits Times in 1981, the first step towards reviving gasing for both exhibition matches and tournaments was the formation of the Singapore Gasing Federation (Fedegasi) in 1979 by a number of gasing enthusiasts.