{"id":"SASIA-009","label":"Sinhalese runa whirring toy","people_or_site":"Sinhalese","country_current":"Sri Lanka","historic_region":"Ceylon (Colombo, Anuradhapura)","macroregion":"South Asia / Sri Lanka","local_name":"runa","source_term":"runa","source_language":"","object_description":"Roughly quadrilateral wood slat (~137x40mm; also neater bamboo specimens), holed at one end on a string, waved overhead to make a whirring noise.","function_summary":"Children's toy, also whirled by boys following Colombo's Perahera procession; elsewhere on the island boys swung a like toy, the helibambara, to keep cattle off the paddy fields.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"SELIGMANN1900_CEYLON_RUNA","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Folk-lore_-_A_Quarterly_Review._Volume_11,_1900.djvu/478","page_or_plate":"Seligmann 1900, printed p. 456 (scan leaf 478); supplemental Perera 1912, p. 147, note 22","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"approximate territory centroid (mining 2026)","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Children waved runa above their heads until the slats whirred. At Cotta near Colombo, Seligmann saw rough wooden versions driven by a cord and short stick; Anuradhapura children played with neater bamboo ones. He was told that a troop of boys also sounded them while following Colombo’s Perahera procession. At Kandy, boys supplied the noise by cracking whips instead. The same toy voice could fill an afternoon’s play or accompany a festival crowd.","pull_quote":"I was informed that at Colombo a troop of boys whirling these toys, called runa, followed the Perahera procession (a ceremony in the great Buddhist festival held annually about the end of May). This is not done at Kandy, their place being taken by boys' cracking whips.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"C. G. Seligmann, \"The Bull-Roarer in Ceylon,\" Folklore 11 (1900): 456","term_gloss":"runa — the Sinhalese children's name Seligmann recorded at Colombo; he gives no further meaning.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"C. G. Seligmann, The Bull-Roarer in Ceylon, Folklore 11 (1900), p. 456: observed children’s play at Cotta and Anuradhapura, reported Colombo Perahera procession; Arthur A. Perera, A Sinhalese Toy, Spolia Zeylanica 8 (1912), p. 147, note 22, separately documents cattle-scaring and helibambara/kotipetta names","url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Folk-lore_-_A_Quarterly_Review._Volume_11,_1900.djvu/478","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013030615/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Folk-lore_-_A_Quarterly_Review._Volume_11,_1900.djvu/478"}],"source_citations":"C. G. Seligmann, The Bull-Roarer in Ceylon, Folklore 11 (1900), p. 456: observed children’s play at Cotta and Anuradhapura, reported Colombo Perahera procession; Arthur A. Perera, A Sinhalese Toy, Spolia Zeylanica 8 (1912), p. 147, note 22, separately documents cattle-scaring and helibambara/kotipetta names","source_display":"C. G. Seligmann, The Bull-Roarer in Ceylon, Folklore 11 (1900), p. 456: observed children’s play at Cotta and Anuradhapura, reported Colombo Perahera procession; Arthur A. Perera, A Sinhalese Toy, Spolia Zeylanica 8 (1912), p. 147, note 22, separately documents cattle-scaring and helibambara/kotipetta names","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Roughly quadrilateral wood slat (~137x40mm; also neater bamboo specimens), holed at one end on a string, waved overhead to make a whirring noise.","function_display":"Children's toy, also whirled by boys following Colombo's Perahera procession; elsewhere on the island boys swung a like toy, the helibambara, to keep cattle off the paddy fields.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"sinhalese","display_name":"Sinhalese runa whirring toy","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-101_mus2026-101-maria-gond-burunga.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-101_mus2026-101-maria-gond-burunga_thumb.jpg","alt":"A Gond burunga from Gotpal, Bastar: a long wooden handle below a separate flat blade, linked by cord that loops around the handle.","credit":"© Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 71.1979.20.19.1-2; Geneviève Dournon collection","license":"Rights reserved (© Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac); museum requires express reproduction authorization. Proposed rehost for non-commercial research.","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/ccProxy.ashx?action=get&command=search&query=274061&range=1-10&fields=*&responseformat=json","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Gond burunga on its cord and stick, Bastar, India.","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-101_mus2026-101-maria-gond-burunga"},"slug":"sasia-009-sinhalese"}