Jerd kerb: Folk games in Sisaket Province

Abstract

     Jerd Gurb is a Thai folk game that was popular in the past among children in Sisaket Province and many provinces in the northeastern of Thailand. The purpose of this research was to study the playing equipment and methods of playing Jerd Gurb that were popular in Sisaket Province by using qualitative research. The research processes were conducted in four stages: stage 1 studied and reviewed relevant documents; stage 2 used an open-ended questionnaire created by the research team, and data were collected from a key informant of 100 students by purposive sampling; stage 3 used the focus group discussion method among a key informant of 28 students who had experienced playing Jerd Gurb; and stage 4 tried out playing by using a key informant of 20 students who had previous playing Jerd Gurb experiences. The data were analysed using triangulation to obtain accurate and reliable data. The results of the study found that. There are four forms of Jerd Gurb games found in Sisaket province: the basic style, the tent-building style, the pyramid-building style, and the circle style. The most important piece of equipment for all four forms is a pair of sandals. For the tent-building style, bamboo is used for playing, while the pyramid-building style uses cans to play with. The number of players, the playing location (field), the rules, and winning and losing are not much different. Players focus mainly on having fun rather than winning or losing.