The National Colombian sport of throwing rocks at gunpowder
BANG! A bright flash erupts as the force of the palm-sized, 680-gram puck smashes gunpowder against metal. The dazzling din reverberates around the room, bouncing off the concrete walls and sheet metal roof to ensure everyone hears it. Welcome to Tejo, the Colombian sport of throwing rocks at gunpowder.
According to Wikipedia, “the sport originated by the Chibcha people from pre-Hispanic central-western Colombia.” Tejo is based on a game developed by indigenous warriors more than 450 years ago in Turmeque, in the Boyaca department, where it was often played to earn the right to wed a beautiful maiden from an opposing tribe. Game play consisted of hurling golden discs into a hole approximately 20 metres away. Some of these ancient gold discs can be seen on display in regional museums, but most were melted down by the Spanish in their tireless quest for the precious metal. However, the conquistadors did make their own subtle improvement to the game – they added explosives to the mix.
The sport’s current incarnation features dense steel discs, thrown into a box measuring one metre square at the far end of the tejo lane. A small paper triangle packed with gunpowder sits on the lip of a plastic circle in the centre of the clay-filled box. Players score one point for getting closer than their opponents, three points for lighting the gunpowder on impact, six points for getting their tejo disc in the circle, and nine points for doing all of the above.
But mind your fingers when you retrieve your tejo disc from the clay. Sometimes the gunpowder goes off without warning, and there are many stories of players losing eyes and fingers, yet continuing to play their beloved game into their 90s.
